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IMAGINATION AND ITS 
PLACE IN EDUCATION 



BY 



EDWIN A. KIRKPATRICK, B.S., M.Ph. 

AUTHOR OF " FUNDAMENTALS OF CHILD STUDY," " GENETIC 



PSYCHOLOGY, 



THE INDIVIDUAL IN THE MAKING, 



OF MONEY," w FUNDAMENTALS OF SOCIOLOGY," ETC. 




GINN AND COMPANY 

BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 
ATLANTA • DALLAS • COLUMBUS • SAN FRANCISCO 



COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY EDWIN A. KIRKPATRICK 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

120.4 



^° & * 



U A<S 



MA*' 20 1320 



tgfte gtftengum jgregg 

GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 



i1A57Q072 



PREFACE 

Science embodies universal truths. Literature expresses 
truth as seen or exemplified by individuals. Neither liter- 
ature nor the science of psychology alone can adequately 
deal with the subject of imagination. Psychology seeks 
to present what is true of all minds, but in no type of 
mental activity is there greater individuality than in the 
exercise of the imagination. 

The writer, in his many years of teaching psychology, 
has enjoyed this subject because tests given students and 
their reports of introspective studies show that the same 
laws govern all minds, though they are partly disguised 
by an infinite variety of image combinations. No topic 
reveals to students more clearly their mental processes 
and at the same time shows them that other persons 
arrive at the same results by different routes. It gives 
the author satisfaction, therefore, to share with a larger 
group than that comprising his own students the pleas- 
ure and advantage to be derived from a study of so in- 
teresting a subject. He hopes that this little book will 
introduce many to a study of the facts in the realm of 
imagination as exemplified in their own minds and in 
the minds of others, especially children, and as revealed 
in play, science, art, and literature. With this end in 
view, scientific technicalities and exhaustive treatment 
have intentionally been avoided. 

Although the book may be studied by individuals suc- 
cessfully, it will prove much more interesting and valuable 

[iii] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

when used by a group of persons who report and discuss 
individual observations and make group experiments. It 
is hoped that the manner of treatment and the exercises 
at the close of each chapter will make the book especially 
useful to teachers' reading circles. The references at the 
close of the book may also prove valuable in giving a 
wider, more intensive, and varied view of the subject. 

E. A. K. 



[iv] 



CONTENTS 

PART I. IMAGINATION AND RELATED ACTIVITIES 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Preliminary Review 3 

Making the absent present. Sources of the material used in 
imagination. Free use of images. Kinds of imagination. 
Imagination as a method of working. Illustrations and 
exercises 

II. Mental Images 17 

Variety, number, and vividness. Control of images. Why 
some images are usually more prominent than others. Ver- 
bal images. Exercises and illustrations 

III. Images and Percepts 26 

After-images. Hallucinations. Suggested and suggesting 
images. Standard images. Exercises and illustrations 

IV. Mental Laws and Imagination 35 

Mental habits. Associations of similarity and contrast. Other 
laws than those of habit and association. Generic and indi- 
vidual images. Exercises 

V. Imagination and Memory 48 

Imaging and locating experiences. Constructive imagination 
and memory. Conflict of memory and creative imagination. 
Special varieties of images as aids to memory. Exercises 

VI. Feeling and Imagination 56 

Images and sensory feelings. Constructive imagination and 
emotional states. Mood and creative imagination. Instincts — 
and imagination. Desire and imagination. Exercises 

VII. Imagination and Dreaming 63 

Dream imagery. Sensations and dreams. Recent experi- 
ences and dreams. Wishes and dreams. Exercises 

[v] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

VIII. Reasoning and Imagination 69 

Similarity and purpose in reasoning. Symbols and exact 
reasoning. Images, judgment, and decision. Imaging in 
induction and deduction. Exercises 



PART II. THE IMAGINATIVE LIFE OF CHILDREN 

IX. Factors involved in the Early Development 

of Imagination 81 

The beginnings of imagination. Language and images. 
Tendency to animism. Imitation and imagination. Remi- 
niscence and anticipation. Imagination and the omnipo- 
tence of childhood. Exercises 

X. Later Development of the Imagination as 

AFFECTED BY AGE, CIRCUMSTANCES, AND INDIVID- 
UALITY . go 

The chief factors involved. Characteristics of imagination 
at different ages. Periods of imaginative development. 
Exercises 

XI. The Period of Imaginative Play 102 

Playing with images. Influences affecting creative activity. 

Imaginary companions. Exercises 

XII. Constructing the Real World 116 

— ^ The period of constructive imagination. Comparing and 
constructing. Truth and fancy. The imaginary made real. 
Individual construction. Exercises 

XIII. The Period of Daydreams 125 

The imagination of the adolescent. Life idealized. Roman- 
tic imagination. Ambition. Exercises 

XIV. Evils and Dangers of Imagination in Children 134 

Playful and pleasurable imagining. Serious or purposeful 
imagination. Imagination in relation to lying. Mental con- 
flict as a cause of wrongdoing. How to guard against the 
dangers of imagination. Literature and imaginative activ- 
ity. Exercises 

[vi] 



CONTENTS 

PART III. SCHOOL SUBJECTS AND THE IMAGINATION 

XV. Use and Training of Imagination in School 157 

Disciplining the imagination. Stimuli to the imagination. 
Directing the imagination. Mental conditions favoring 
imagination. Exercises 

XVI. Learning to Read and Spell 167 

Imagination involved in learning to read. The thought 
method. The symbol or phonic method. Learning to 
spell. Exercises 

XVII. Imagination in Drawing and Constructing . 177 

Images and drawing. Models and images. Constructing 
and imaging. Designing and inventing. Exercises 

XVIII. Imagination in Arithmetic 183 

From concrete things to symbols. From auditory to vis- 
ual images. Measurement and imaging. Computing and 
imaging. Imagination and problem-solving. Exercises 

XIX. Geography and the Imagination 192 

Geography as a stimulus to the imagination. Geograph- 
ical language. Constructive imagination and geography. 
Geographical imaging and reasoning. Exercises 

XX. Imagination in History and Literature . . 197 

Enlargement of the social environment through imagi- 
nation. Historical and literary ideals. Dramatics in his- 
tory and literature. Illustrating and writing as a stimulus 
to the imagination. Literary expression and imagination. 
Exercises 

XXL Imagination in Nature Study and Science . 204 

Imagination and observation. Artistic and poetic study. 
Practical nature study. Scientific nature study. Exercises 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 209 

[vii] 



INTRODUCTION . 

Imagination has been the Cinderella of the intellectual 
faculties, so far as the attention and interest of those who 
are charged with the care and culture of the young are 
concerned. Educational literature has been filled with 
discussions of the nature, value, and training of percep- 
tion, memory, and reason ; but imagination has always 
been kept in the background, — so much so, in fact, that 
most parents and teachers have only very hazy notions 
respecting the role which this intellectual process plays 
in human life and the prominence which it should be 
accorded in education. Nine out of ten persons speak 
of imagination as though it were not a vital factor in 
mental operations, — as though it could be ignored or 
eliminated without loss to the efficiency, stability, or 
balance of the human mind. 

It is true that "Training the Imagination" is a topic 
sometimes discussed at educational meetings ; but anyone 
who has listened to these discussions will readily bear 
witness to the fact that the majority, perhaps, of educators 
who appear to be well informed on most educational and 
psychological subjects find themselves at sea when they at- 
tempt to distinguish imagination from other forms of mental 
activity, and especially when they discuss the function of 
imagination in the various branches of school instruction 
and the part it should play in the educational program. 

Professor Kirkpatrick's book has been prepared with 
a view to clearing up misconceptions in the minds of 

[ix] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

parents and teachers respecting the relation of imagina- 
tion to the other intellectual processes, the varieties of 
imaginative activity in the adjustments of daily life, the 
changes in the content and form of imagination that 
occur in the course of a child's development, individual 
differences in the prominence, intensity, and quality of 
imagination, and the proper utilization of this activity in 
the work of the school. The author has treated his 
theme as a whole and in its various subdivisions in an 
unusually concrete and lively manner. His generalizations 
are all based on data derived from the circumstances and 
experiences of the daily life of childhood and youth in 
the city and in the country, and in homes with varying 
ideals of training and discipline. Many persons have co- 
operated with him in the effort to discover how different 
minds work imaginatively under varying conditions and 
at different periods in mental development. In this way 
a large amount of accurate and live material has been 
collected, and typical examples are presented and inter- 
preted in this volume. It makes a document of excep- 
tional interest and value for students of human nature, 
and especially for anyone who acts as counselor for the 
young or who gives instruction on any subject in the 

school or in the home. 

M. V. O'SHEA 
The University of Wisconsin 



[x] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE 
IN EDUCATION 

PART I 
IMAGINATION AND RELATED ACTIVITIES 



CHAPTER I 

PRELIMINARY REVIEW 

Making the absent present. The following will serve 
as an introduction to our subject : "He opened the gate, 
saw the white cottage through the trees and shrubs, 
caught the odor of roses and, as he approached the door, 
heard a joyful cry, saw the door flung open, and felt her 
arms about him." Is this an account of a man's experi- 
ence as he approached a suburban home, or is it a de- 
scription of what he mentally represented as he sat in his 
office in the city, among far different sights, sounds, and 
odors ? If the latter is the case, we have an example of 
imaginative activity. 

This power of viewing the absent as though it were 
present is one of the most distinctive characteristics of 
human beings. Animals have it either not at all or to 
only a slight degree. For the most part they live in the 
present, while people occupy their minds for hours at a 
time with the absent, the past, and the future. An animal 
is modified by his past experiences, and on that account 
his future actions will be different, but there is little reason 
for believing that any animal becomes distinctly conscious 
of those past experiences, independent of the surround- 
ings in which they occurred, or that he pictures far in 
advance what his actions are to be. 

It is because human beings have this extraordinary 
power to represent the absent that they are able to become 

[3] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

familiar with objects and events distant in space and time 
and are able to use the results of past experience in rep- 
resenting and planning what they shall do in the future. 
The animal's mental experiences are determined by the 
here and now, the man's by what has been and may be. 

A popular view of imagination is that it is concerned 
only with the untrue and the unreal ; but this is correct 
only in the sense that the reality and the truth are not 
manifested in stimuli immediately present. Imagination 
may concern itself either with what has existed or may 
exist in the future, or it may represent what never has 
been and perhaps never will be experienced by any human 
being in exactly the form pictured. In the illustration 
given above, the man may be living again in imagination 
an actual experience and may represent nothing which 
did not actually happen, or he may be representing what 
is likely to occur when he goes home at night. Again, 
he may be representing an experience that he has never 
had, among scenes that he has. never visited or heard 
described. In all these cases things not present are made 
real in his consciousness, which is the most distinctive 
characteristic of imaginative activity. 

When the image of the scene is a memory of what 
actually happened there is less freedom of representation 
than when new surroundings and events are mirrored in 
the mind. We may say, then, that the more completely 
what is not present to the senses is made to seem real in 
consciousness and the freer this seeming reality is from 
any actual associated experience of the moment, the 
greater, is the degree of imagination. The man who pic- 
tures exactly scenes that have occurred or will occur is 
using his imagination just as truly as the one who pictures 

[4] 



PRELIMINARY REVIEW 

the unreal and the impossible. The only difference is 
that in the one case knowledge of the world as it is ex- 
ercises a stronger controlling influence over the imagina- 
tive activity than in the other. 

Sources of the material used in imagination. However 
free imagination may become, it must begin with materials 
supplied by real sense experiences. A man who has 
never had any visual experiences has no material for 
representing how things actually look. If he pictures a 
beautiful form it is in terms of touch and motion rather 
than of light and shade, while representation of color as 
it appears to the eye is utterly impossible to him. He 
can only conjecture that colors differ, as tactile, auditory, 
or olfactory sensations differ ; and when red or yellow are 
mentioned he may represent them as resembling one kind 
or another of the sensations with which he is familiar. 
He cannot possibly experience in consciousness the sen- 
sation felt by normal people when objects of those colors 
are presented to the eye. 

It has often been suggested that animals or beings on 
other planets may have senses entirely different from 
those that we possess. Whether such is the case or not, 
it is utterly impossible for us to represent what those 
senses might be except in terms of sensations that we 
have experienced. It is true that we may represent objects 
entirely different from any that we have ever seen and 
perhaps from any that have ever existed, but in doing 
so we must use material derived from actual sensory 
experiences. We may picture an animal or a plant differ- 
ent from any that we know or possibly combining the char- 
acteristics of plants and animals in a way unknown to 
science, but in doing so we have used material derived 

[5] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

from actual observations. Our image of an entirely new 
creature is made possible only by combining parts of many 
separate observations in an entirely new way. 

Free use of images. The material used by the imagina- 
tion consists of images that are like the sensations ex- 
perienced when the stimuli were present. When these 
images are arranged in exactly the same way as their 
originals were in some experience or series of experi- 
ences, there is little freedom of imagination, and the 
process is usually designated as memory or reproductive 
imagination. When, however, some of the images are 
modified or transposed and when images derived from 
various experiences are combined into a new unity, we 
have a better example of free activity of the imagination. 
The person who, when the word " tree " is spoken, 
always pictures a particular tree standing amid certain 
surroundings has not as great freedom of the imagina- 
tion, so far as trees are concerned, as the one who pictures 
the general form of a tree that can be located anywhere 
and instantly become of any size, species, or shape. An 
active imagination not only brings vividly before the mind 
sense experiences, in the absence of the objects produc- 
ing them, but it exercises great freedom in isolating 
sensations from their associates and in making new 
groupings of images. When images can thus be disso- 
ciated and combined with others there is a high degree 
of freedom as regards the material that the imagination 
may use. The fact that the images are thus free to enter 
into new combinations does not, however, give the 
imagination complete liberty when a new complex image 
and perhaps a series of events is to be constructed. In 
making such a construction it may be easy to separate 

[6] 



PRELIMINARY REVIEW 

the images from their former associates, but one may have 
difficulty in combining them in ways that differ greatly 
from combinations that have previously been experienced. 

Kinds of imagination. On the basis of the above facts 
regarding freedom of imagination, we may distinguish 
three rather distinct types of imaginative activity. These 
are, first, reproductive imagination, in which the past is 
presented to the mind with the images arranged just as 
they were in the original experience ; second, construc- 
tive imagination, in which the separate images are com- 
bined not according to some particular experience but in 
accordance with their more usual arrangement or as 
directed by descriptions ; third, creative imagination in 
which the images are freely arranged in accordance with 
one's own feelings and purposes. 

The first type of imagination is quite similar to memory 
and may be identical with it. There may, however, be 
this difference : In memory we know that certain things 
happened at a particular time and place and in a certain 
order or relation, while in what is called reproductive 
imagination there may be less accuracy as to the order 
and relation of events but greater vividness of imagery, 
so that it almost seems as if the sensory experience were 
being repeated. It follows, therefore, that although repro- 
ductive imagination and memory are often nearly iden- 
tical, yet there may be a high degree of imaginative 
activity with much inaccuracy of memory or a high de- 
gree of reliability of memory with a limited exercise of 
imagination. 

In constructive imagination laws of association and 
volition have a prominent part. The most common use 
of constructive imagination is that in which it is directed 

[7] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

by words or symbols of some kind. If you are told how the 
objects in a room have been arranged and are then able 
to picture its appearance so that you find it just as you ex- 
pected when you enter, there has been effective use of the 
constructive imagination. Through association the words 
call up images of objects and their relations and the uni- 
fied picture is formed accordingly. If the room and the 
objects described are familiar, it may be easy to form vivid 
pictures ; but if the arrangement is entirely different from 
that to which one has been accustomed, it may be difficult 
to construct the scene as described because of the tendency 
to reproduce in accordance with former experiences. 

What is actually imaged when a description is given 
conforms in part to the words used and in part to the 
kind and arrangement of images which are most familiar 
to us. This may be illustrated by the following descrip- 
tion: "As we were driving along the road we saw a house 
and a barnyard with various animals in it." Some per- 
sons in listening to such a description may do little con- 
structing, but merely reproduce vividly some suggested 
scene with which they are familiar. Those who construct a 
definite picture are likely to do so in accordance with their 
usual experience of roads, houses, barnyards, and animals. 
If a more detailed description were given, the whole scene 
would perhaps have to be changed. For example, it might 
be said, " The house is sixty feet long, five feet wide, and 
forty feet high ; the road is of white crushed stone ; the 
fence is a cactus hedge ; and the animals are elephants, 
camels, kangaroos, reindeer, and wolves." One must then 
change his picture so completely that he realizes that con- 
structive imagination is influenced by habit as much or 
even more than it is by the exact meanings of words. 

[8] 



PRELIMINARY REVIEW 

In creative imagination one pictures according to his 
emotions, desires, and purposes, although in doing so he 
is of course influenced by his previous mental habits. If 
you are asked to plan how the objects in a room of a 
certain size and description shall be arranged, for certain 
purposes or in order to produce the most beautiful effect, 
you must exercise your creative imagination. If you pic- 
ture the room as quite similar to a particular model or 
with the arrangement most familiar, you employ less 
originality in creating the complex image than if the char- 
acteristics of various rooms are combined in such a way 
as to make one of a new type that is useful or beautiful. 
Freedom from the usual is one of the marked characteris- 
tics of creative imagination, yet if this freedom does not 
recognize the essential nature of things, the product of 
one's creative imagination may be neither useful nor 
beautiful. The inventor and the artist must show freedom 
in making new combinations, but the complex whole must 
be such as the nature of the material and the purpose of 
the creation demand, or it will be of no value. 

These three forms of imagination all necessitate the 
production of images based on original sensory experi- 
ences. Constructive imagination involves the ability to 
separate images from their original associates and to 
arrange them in new combinations according to directions, 
while creative imagination requires the same power to 
select and rearrange images and also the faculty of deter- 
mining how they shall be arranged in order that some 
ideal or purpose may be realized. Reproductive imagina- 
tion is especially valuable in describing our own experi- 
ences ; constructive imagination, in the understanding and 
appreciation of descriptions given by others ; and creative 

[9] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

imagination, in evolving imaginary descriptions and stories. 
In the industries reproductive imagination enables one to 
construct according to a sample pattern, constructive 
imagination helps one to follow directions and interpret 
plans, while creative imagination gives power to devise 
new machines and processes. In art reproductive imagina- 
tion enables one to reproduce what he has seen, construc- 
tive imagination helps one to illustrate a story or poem, 
and creative imagination is the source of every original 
conception. 

We see, then, that the materials used in imagination 
are necessarily derived from sensory experiences, but that 
these materials may be modified and arranged in ways 
quite unlike those of the real world or they may be 
arranged in accordance with the actual or probable events 
of our own lives or those of others. The historian who 
pictures people as they have really existed is using his 
imagination in accordance with the facts of particular 
situations. The novelist who describes imaginary charac- 
ters which have had no separate individual existence may 
be directing his fancy in accordance with the nature and 
relation of things as they are found in the real world, or 
he may exercise his imagination in representing what will 
stir the emotions or produce aesthetic satisfaction without 
regard to the actuality, probability, or even possibility of 
the existence of such things as he describes. In the first 
case he is portraying essential but not literal truth, while 
in the latter case truth is regarded only so far as is neces- 
sary to produce the desired mental effects. 

The scientist who imagines all substances as consisting 
of molecules composed of ultimate atoms, or who pictures 
atoms as electrons or centers of electric forces, is using 

[10] 



PRELIMINARY REVIEW 

his imagination to help him to grasp the truth. The mere 
fact that things can be imagined more vividly one way 
than another does not prove the truth of the one theory 
as opposed to another. 

A reader who pictures accurately what is described by 
the historian, novelist, or scientist is truthfully represent- 
ing what they have set forth, but some of what is imag- 
ined may have no counterpart in the world of objective 
reality. Imagination is not in itself either true or false ; 
it is merely a mode of representing experiences in con- 
sciousness. It is only because the imagination is often 
occupied with representing the agreeable rather than the 
actual that there is a tendency to contrast the imaginary 
with the true and to speak of a liar as one whose imagina- 
tion is too strong. The impulse to imagine things as one 
would like them instead of as they are may, of course, lead 
to unconscious lying, while he who lies intentionally need 
not necessarily image vividly but may merely strive to make 
others form pictures which do not conform to actuality. 

Imagination as a method of working. There are three 
principal ways of meeting situations and of solving prob- 
lems : one method is that of observing and manipulating 
objects, another, of imaging them, and the third is that 
of using symbols which represent them. 

By the first method one would find how many inch 
cubes there are in a three-inch cube by cutting it into inch 
cubes and counting them, while by the second method he 
would image the three-inch cube as being divided into 
inch cubes and count without actually seeing them. By 
the third method he would use figures or symbols to repre- 
sent the cube and the mathematical process by which he 
could calculate the number ; for example, 3x3x3 = 27. 

[«] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

If you are asked to tell how many posts placed a rod 
apart would be required to fence a field eight by ten rods, 
you could find the number by placing the posts at the 
proper distances and counting them, or you could imagine 
the field surrounded by the posts a rod apart and count 
the number, or, without representing the field at all, you 
could use symbols standing for distances and numbers 
and calculate according to the formula, " The number of 
posts equals twice the length and breadth of the field 
in rods." 

You may determine whether two colors match by look- 
ing at both of them at once ; or in the absence of the 
colors you may imagine how they look and decide whether 
the ribbon seen at one store will match the dress seen at 
another ; or one who is used to dealing with colors may 
represent each color or shade by a number and letter and 
can thus designate what colors are to be combined or 
matched, as is done by the dyer of yarns. The first, or 
perceptual, method is surest but also the slowest and 
sometimes impracticable ; the method of imagination or 
representation is quicker, though less accurate, but one 
that can be used at any time ; while the conceptual, or 
symbol, method, when proper symbols and formulas have 
been learned, is quickest and most accurate. 

The child in building a house with blocks is likely to 
depend chiefly upon the perceptual method in choosing 
and placing his blocks. Later he will be able to image 
the blocks and their arrangement before actually selecting 
and placing them, while an architect indicates the plan 
of a house by means of figures and lines. 

There are great differences in people as to their ability 
to deal with things in their absence and as to the methods 

[12] 



PRELIMINARY REVIEW 

they employ. Some may use images, others symbols. 
Some persons must have the things before them, others 
may represent them so vividly that it is not necessary to 
have the objects present, while a few with more abstract 
concepts need only symbols and formulas in order to 
determine conditions and quickly form a plan of action. 
Imagination may therefore be regarded as a mental proc- 
ess in which images of things, persons, and events take 
the place of the sensations that may be or have been 
produced by them. It is also a mode of thinking in 
which images of experiences rather than symbols stand- 
ing for those experiences are the materials with which 
the mind works. 

Illustrations and exercises. The following are reports 
of individuals as to the use of imagination. It will be well 
for each reader to note down instances in which he uses 
his imagination effectively and of other cases when it fails 
to serve his purposes or leads him into error. From many 
such observations he can form an idea of the part that 
imagination really plays in his mental life. 

Images play a large part in my existence. While reading 
books I almost always imagine myself to be certain characters, 
while acquaintances take other parts. But when reading books 
which are not stories I do not image the different characters as 
much as I do the circumstances. 

In day dreaming, when I close my eyes I can always see 
things just as if they were real. I also feel sensations very 
keenly as they impressed me in the first place. For instance, 
one day last summer I went with a family to Mt. Wachusett. 
My girl friend and I tried to see how far we could run up the 
Indian trail without stopping. In thinking of this day's outing 
this feeling of actual fatigue is uppermost in my thoughts. 

[13] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

The next thing I think of is the cool place we found in 
which to eat our dinner, and how good it seemed to sit down to 
eat after being so tired. I can actually picture the whole group 
as we walked, ate, or did other things throughout the day. 

I always see in my " mind's eye " the thing itself, hardly 
ever words or definitions. For instance, I think of a day in 
camp. I see perfectly the glassy stillness of the lake at sunrise ; 
I hear again the bugle sounding the reveille in the boys' camp 
across the bay ; I hear the rattle of dishes in the kitchen, smell 
the coffee, and the fish frying ; and so on throughout the whole 
day. Every little incident comes back into my mind, and I see 
and hear and live again all those delightful experiences. If I 
close my eyes now I see plainly the tiny bedroom in the cottage, 
hear the rustle of the leaves and the soft lap, lap of the water 
upon the rocks of the shore at night. So it is with all my past 
pleasures They flash upon that i nwar( j e y e 

Which is the bliss of solitude. 

In thinking of people I usually see them at the sound of the 
name. On some occasions, however, I have an auditory image, 
as of the trilling laugh of my favorite cousin, or hear again the 
peculiar tones in which someone has spoken. 

Cicero is an exception. I never picture the man, but the first 
page of the textbook and his first oration against Catiline. If a 
book were given me, opened at that place, with my eyes shut 
I believe I could put my finger on the words " O tempora ! 
O mores ! " so vividly do I see them on that page. 

I cannot image the fragrance of a rose from just the abstract 
idea " rose," but let me form an image of some particular rose 
or roses and I can image their fragrance and thorns as easily 
as their beauty. 

My imagination often reminds me of my duties. If I do not 
feel like writing home some night, I picture mother looking in 
vain for a letter from me, and I write the letter. 

[14] 



PRELIMINARY REVIEW 

I am able to understand the people I come in contact with 
by imagining their feelings and motives. I am able to under- 
stand the different studies I take by picturing what I study 
instead of just reading it. 

In imagining a day's outing I thought of a certain grove near 
a pond where I had a picnic five years ago. I saw the baseball 
game in which I was pitching and was knocked from the box. 
These images were plainly visual. Then I had a motor image 
of the races in which I strained every nerve to win. Then came 
my gustatory image of eating a large quantity of sandwiches 
and ice cream and drinking tonic. The motor image appeared 
again of my struggling to complete ten strokes in the water 
before giving up. In connection with the baseball I could place 
an auditory image, that of hearing encouragement from members 
of my side. 

I can never recall the image of a person's face, and rarely 
of a person's form. If I try hard to do so the image is distorted 
or unnatural. I can remember only once in my life when the 
image of a face has come to me vividly ; that was the face of 
my dead uncle. 

Landscape scenes, no matter how familiar, are never imaged 
in my mind except in a very vague and fragmentary way. My 
lack of imagination in this line does not prevent me from enjoy- 
ing very much descriptions of scenery in books, though it may 
be only the beauty of the language that impresses me. 

My poor imagination has been, I think, a hindrance to 
me in English composition and in the study of geography. 
For instance, when the Mississippi River was mentioned I 
thought not of a river but of the line representing the river on 
the map. 

I was surprised to find how much and to what good use I 
could put my images, vague as they were, in solving problems 
in arithmetic. 

[15] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

When I am sewing, making a dress or hat, I picture how the 
dress or hat will look when finished. If I have an untrimmed 
hat, I picture how I wish it to look and then trim it or have 
it trimmed. 

When I am to go to a strange place for a day or two, before 
I go I picture how I think it will look. 

At home many times I am told that we are going to have 
a certain dish for supper or dinner, and I am disappointed 
when it doesn't taste as I had imaged it would. 

When trying to write out notes for folk dancing I often seem 
to see the girls in the different positions and sometimes I can 
seem to hear Miss L. giving directions, and thus I can write the 
notes more fully. When answering questions in " Minimum 
Essentials " in geography I often visualize the map of Europe, 
or if I want a particular city I locate it mentally on the map. 



16] 



CHAPTER II 

MENTAL IMAGES 

Variety, number, and vividness. There are as many 
kinds of mental images as there are varieties of sensory- 
experiences. In recalling your breakfast orange this morn- 
ing you may have an image of its shape and color, of the 
sound it made when you dropped it, of your sensation of 
movement in reaching for it, of how it felt to your hand 
as you grasped it, its odor as you smelled it, and its taste 
as you began eating it. You may also imagine the feel- 
ing of weariness, hunger, headache, or well-being that you 
experienced at the same time. 

In imaging the visual appearance of an object you may 
think not only of its form and size but also of its color, 
as orange, red, green, or blue. In imaging the experi- 
ence of touching an object you may represent not only its 
feeling of smoothness or roughness but also its tempera- 
ture, as warm or cold, or the pain that it may have 
produced if it were sharp or struck the skin with force. 
In representing the taste of an object you may image it 
as salt, sour, bitter, or sweet, while in the case of smell 
the varieties of imagery are indefinitely numerous. 

It is quite probable that of the various possible images 
some appear much more frequently and with greater vivid- 
ness than others. If you recall your breakfast table this 
morning, your images may be chiefly of the visual appear- 
ance of the various objects and persons, or you may 

[17] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

mentally hear the clatter of knives and forks and the 
voices of the various people at the table. Again, the 
odor of the food, its taste, its contact with the hand or 
the tongue, or the movements made in procuring and 
eating it may be most prominent. 

In anticipating what is likely to occur at a banquet or 
a reception your mind may be filled with visual pictures, 
with auditory images of voices and music, with images 
from any of the other senses, or from general bodily feel- 
ing. Any or all of these may appear, but it is probable 
that one sort of imagery will occur much more frequently 
than others in your imaginative pictures and also that this, 
or possibly a different kind of imagery, will be more vivid ; 
that is, more like a sensation than any of the others. 

With a large proportion of people visual images occupy 
the most prominent place, auditory next, followed some- 
times by one, sometimes by another of the other varieties. 
Some persons depend almost entirely upon one kind of 
image, but most people form all kinds to a greater or 
less extent. 

There are a few whose images of objects are so vague 
and indefinite that they assert that they have no images 
w T orth mentioning. When you name an object such as 
an apple they know its shape, size, color, etc., but they 
do not image it with sufficient vividness to produce a con- 
scious state like that experienced when one sees, smells, 
or eats an apple. It is difficult for those who form vivid 
images to understand how it is possible to have any idea of 
an apple when it is not present without forming distinct 
images of the sensations that it gives, but nevertheless we 
must accept the statement of many observers that such 
may be the case. 

[IS] 



MENTAL IMAGES 

Ccmtrol of images. Many persons who under ordinary 
circumstances have only vague or fleeting images of the 
objects of which they are thinking are able, if they wish 
to do so, to form vivid images and hold them in mind 
for several seconds, On the other hand, some people who 
ordinarily image vividly in all their thinking may be unable 
to keep any selected image in mind and make it more 
distinct. It is not at all unusual for those who occasionally 
form vivid images of smell to be utterly unable to form 
voluntarily an image of even the most familiar odors. In 
general, however, the images that are spontaneously most 
prominent in consciousness are also most easily controlled. 

A few people seem to have almost complete control 
over certain images so that they can deal with them just 
as they would with real objects. A painter, for example, 
may study his model properly posed, then dismiss her and 
paint from the mental image that he has formed ; or a 
musician may image so vividly the tones corresponding 
to a musical score as to know exactly how it will sound 
when played. Such vividness and power of control of 
images are, however, rare. Most people believe that they 
have more vivid images and better control over them than 
they really possess. You may think that you have a clear 
and accurate image of a chair, a dish, or a postage stamp, 
but if you are asked to draw it or describe it minutely, it 
will usually be found that the image is not nearly so detailed 
and accurate as the actual perception. 

Control of images may be tested not only by represent- 
ing mentally the sensations an object has actually given 
you but by imaging how it would appear under various 
conditions. For example, if an object has been seen only 
from the front in its natural size and position, can you 

[19] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

imagine how it would look seen at an angle or from above, 
or if its dimensions were greatly enlarged, or if it were 
placed much nearer or farther away, or if its color and 
its surroundings were changed ? People often purchase 
objects that prove entirely unsatisfactory when placed in 
their homes because they are unable to represent their 
appearance in certain surroundings. A person who can 
image a familiar tune as played upon the piano may be 
unable to image the same tune played on a violin. 

Power of constructive imagination depends very largely 
upon the degree of control that one has of his images. 
This is illustrated by the following : A three-inch cube, 
red on the outside and white on the inside, is cut into 
inch cubes. How many cubes will there be with one red 
surface, how many with two red surfaces, and how many 
with three ? Another test is to image a long word and 
then see if you can name the letters backward correctly 
and as rapidly as you could if you were looking at the word. 

Why some images are ustially more prominent tha?i 
others. Extensive experiments show that most people 
form more visual images than any other kind, and in a 
considerable number of cases the visual images are also 
most vivid and most completely under voluntary control. 
There are several reasons why this should be so. In the 
first place nearly all material things are visible, while many 
of them have neither taste nor odor. Again, in perceiv- 
ing an object that may yield several kinds of sensation 
we almost always see it many more times than we hear 
it, touch it, taste it, or smell it. It is not at all strange, 
therefore, that when that object is represented in our 
minds, its visual appearance is the most prominent and 
perhaps the only image that is formed. 

[20] 



MENTAL IMAGES 

Again, if we notice the ways in which the various sense 
organs are used we shall find that the eye is under much 
better control and much more active than any other sense 
organ. We can not only shut out all sensation by closing 
the eyes but we can instantly turn them away from what 
we do not wish to see, and fix them upon some other 
object. It is not easy to close the ear to all sounds, and 
it is impossible to turn completely from one sound to 
another. We can get sensations of touch from any object 
near us, but a much longer time is required to approach 
objects and touch them than to look at them. Taste is 
much like touch in these respects, and many objects yield 
no taste whatever. With regard to olfactory sensations 
there is very little possibility of controlling them except 
by closing the nostrils or keeping at a sufficient distance 
from the source. Since the visual sensations are so easily 
and continuously controlled it is not strange that we should 
also develop ready control of visual images. 

The prominence of visual imagery has also been in- 
creased by the conditions introduced by modern civiliza- 
tion. Visual language and the extensive use of pictures 
and diagrams have greatly stimulated visual activity. 
Among people who read little, auditory images are often 
decidedly prominent. This applies both to children who 
have not yet learned to read and to adults who make 
little use of books and papers. 

Verbal images. Some persons instead of imaging things 
image the words or symbols that stand for them. Your 
own tendency in this respect may be discovered in the 
following way : Go over carefully in your mind your ex- 
periences at a picnic or a party, or make out plans of what 
you are going to do on a certain day. After you have 

[21] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

done so notice to what extent your mind has been filled 
with images of things and events as they have appeared 
or would appear to you, and to what extent it has been 
occupied with words suggesting or describing those objects 
and events. Some persons will find these images to be 
almost wholly concrete, while a few will have chiefly a 
series of images of words as either seen, heard, or spoken. 
Some will have both kinds of imagery, and in many in- 
stances if a person is asked to describe the scene that 
he has been picturing, many of his concrete images will 
give place to verbal, that is, images of words. Others, 
however, speak or write words with little or no previous 
imagery of what they are to be. 

Such an experiment as this would seem to reveal the 
fact that definite images, either concrete or verbal, ordi- 
narily play a minor part in the thought processes of some 
individuals. They become conscious of various events and 
describe them, but with only faint and fleeting images 
of things or words. It is not improbable, however, that 
many persons who think that images are present to only 
a slight extent in their ordinary thinking do in reality 
form motor, or kinesthetic, images. They experience again 
the movements that they made when an event happened, 
or the movements involved in speaking or writing the 
words describing it. Such imagery is prominent in many 
people, but the individual is not always distinctly aware of 
the fact. This kind of image is often mingled with other 
kinds and with actual sensations of movement to such an 
extent that it is not noticed. Many people who think they 
have distinct images of taste find, upon more careful 
observation, that they are only imaging the motions of 
the tongue and lips, and perhaps actually making such 

[22] 



MENTAL IMAGES 

motions, while genuine taste images are scarcely present 
at all. In a similar way instead of imaging the feeling 
of objects to the skin we image the movement of a finger 
over the object. Even visual images are closely associated 
with the actual movements of the eye and with images 
of such movement. Again, in using verbal images actual 
and imaged movements play a large part. It is safe to 
say that motor, or kinesthetic, images figure largely in 
the mental operations of all persons, whether they seem 
to have much or little distinct imagery, either concrete or 
verbal. On the other hand, many people who think that 
their motor images are very vivid will find upon close 
observation that what they had supposed to be motor 
images are really sensations of actual movements that 
they are making while engaged in thought. 

Motor images represent our reactions to things and 
events. As sensations are merely signals to which we 
react in appropriate ways, it is more important to us to 
know what to do when a certain sensation is experienced 
than it is to observe the exact character of that sensation. 
It is natural, therefore, that in representing past experi- 
ences, or those that may come in the future, the action 
involved should hold a prominent place. For this reason 
actual movements and images of movements play a large 
part in the mental operations of all persons whether they 
have much or little vivid imagery of other kinds. 

EXERCISES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 

Read the following sentences and notice which of the images 
aroused by the italicized words are most vivid : 

1. The dog is one of the most useful of animals. There is no 
musical instrument equal to a violin. Not all churches have bells. 

[23] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

He ordered pork for dinner. At breakfast he had oranges. Of all 
flowers I like roses best. 

2. To test control of images, form as vivid images as you can 
(a) of the taste of sugar (not how it feels on the tongue), (fr) the odor 
of violets, (c) the feeling involved in the movements of running 
upstairs, (d) the color and shading of an apple of some familiar 
variety, (e) the pitch and quality of a friend's voice, (f) the exact 
color of a friend's eyes. 

3. In the case of symbols notice in what way you think of names, 
figures, formulas, etc., whether as they sound or as they look, and 
in which form you can best hold them vividly before the mind. 
Notice also whether you make slight movements or image move- 
ments as you think the symbols. 

4. Test your verbal images by timing yourself as you try to spell 
backwards familiar words. The average time required by adults for 
spelling backwards such words as the following : " constancy," 
ft treatment," t? carpenter," " respected," was found by Professor 
Gordon to be about six seconds for those who have good visual 
images and eight seconds for others. 

5. Compare your experiences with the following observations that 
have been made by other students : 

Pictured sensations are very common to me ; in fact, I cannot 
imagine any condition, hunger, joy, want, or misery that would be 
impossible for me to feel and see mentally. Visual images are more 
numerous in my experience than any other, while auditory, olfactory, 
and gustatory are next in order. In visual images I picture the past 
(actual occurrences), the present, and a wonderful future. A word 
suggestive of a past experience will bring the entire scene and even 
the entire day to me as plainly as if I had seen it on a moving-picture 
screen. If the ocean is represented I actually see its motion, smell 
the salt breeze, the old wharves, the fish. If the country is pictured 
I smell the pine woods and hear the murmur of the wind in the 
branches. Events of a day follow rapidly in a short space of time ; 
although each is plain and clear in detail. 

In ordinary conversation mental images are continuous ; in fact, 
in singing, studying, playing, walking, I use imagery extensively. 

[24] 



MENTAL IMAGES 

I realize into what misery one's imagination may lead one, and I try 
to control mine to some extent; however, it is very strong, and 
visual images are almost always prominent. I picture the impossible 
also, although the possible and p7-obable are more common. 

I have spoken of olfactory and auditory sensations which I often 
experience; gustatory is perhaps equally recurrent. I can taste the 
salt spray of the ocean, bananas and cream, watermelon, sulphur, etc. 

I could write indefinitely of mental images, because I have them 
almost continuously, and concerning everything in this world and 
the next. 

The word "coffee" brought to my mind a cup of coffee standing 
on a table, and then I thought of the odor. The first image was 
visual, and the second was of smell. 

I tried five other experiments of this same kind. The words 
" cow " and " horse " brought to my mind a cow and a horse which 
we have at home. The word " mountain " brought to my mind 
Mt. Wachusett as we can see it from the dormitory windows. At 
the word " box " I saw a small pasteboard shoe box. At the word 
tf river " I saw Millers River at a certain point where I had been 
accustomed to cross it on my way to school. All these were visual 
images of the objects, and in each case they were memory images. 

My images are mostly visual, then gustatory, then olfactory. In 
fact, when anything at all is spoken about I see an image of it. 
Always I form visual images and sometimes others in addition. 

It seems that the visual image is most prominent ; in almost all 
cases the visual image comes first, auditory second, and so on. Usu- 
ally the image recalls some personal experience or the time or place 
of occurrence. 



[25] 



CHAPTER III 
IMAGES AND PERCEPTS 

After-images. Many persons have noticed that sensa- 
tions of sight, touch, or sound may continue after the 
stimulus producing them has ceased. This phenomenon 
can easily be studied, especially in the case of the eye. 
If one looks for a few minutes at a window, then turns 
the eye upon a gray surface or a wall, he will see an out- 
line of the window ; or if he will look at a brightly colored 
spot steadily for several minutes and then look at a gray 
surface, he will perceive a colored spot shaped like that 
at which he has been looking and usually of a color com- 
plementary to it. The term given to this phenomenon 
is " after-image," although " after-sensation " would prob- 
ably be more correct. Careful experiment shows that none 
of the sense organs respond instantly when they are stimu- 
lated, and also that after the stimulus ceases their activity 
continues for a short time. It is to the latter fact that 
after-images are due. 

After-images are of two kinds, positive and negative. 
Positive after-images seem to be the result of continued 
activity of the sensory apparatus of the same kind as that 
incited by the stimulus, while negative after-images are the 
result of the kind of activity which takes place after the 
sense organ has become fatigued. Early in the morning, 

[26] 



IMAGES AND PERCEPTS 

when the eyes are fresh, if one glances at the window 
and then at the wall, he will see a bright outline of the 
window ; while if he gazes at the window for a while and 
then looks at the wall, the outline of the window will be 
dark. If one looks at a red object for an instant and then 
at a gray surface, he may see a red spot ; but if he fixes 
the eye upon the red spot for some time and then looks 
at gray, he will see a green spot. In each case the first 
was a positive and the second a negative after-image. Such 
images as these are of an entirely different sort from those 
usually known as mejital images. 

In the case of a mental image the activity excited by 
the stimulus to the sense organ has ceased, and yet it is 
possible for one mentally to experience what affected his 
senses minutes, hours, or years ago. It is supposed that 
in the case of a mental image the same nerve centers in 
the brain as those affected by the original stimulus to the 
sense organ are reexcited by nerve impulses from some 
other portion of the brain. Whether there is also some 
reexcitation of the nerve elements in the sense orsfan is 
a disputed point. In any case it is clear that a mental 
image proper is not wholly or chiefly excited by immediate 
stimulation of the senses. 

Hallucinations. As has already been stated, some per- 
sons can bring before the mind images that are almost as 
vivid as sensations from the real objects. If this were com- 
mon and if images differed from sensations in no other 
respect than in vividness, great confusion would result. 
If you imaged a person sitting in an empty chair oppo- 
site you, you would be likely to think the person was really 
there. When you form such an image and look directly 
at the empty chair, if the image were stronger than the 

[27] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

sensation, the back of the chair would be invisible. If, 
however, the sensation is more intense than the image, 
you are forced to see the back of the chair and cannot, 
therefore, believe that it is occupied by the person you 
have imaged. If your eyes are closed it is much easier 
for you to believe that the person is really there. There 
are persons who occasionally have images that rival sensa- 
tions in intensity. One lady who was frequently troubled 
with such mental pictures was compelled to use some 
other sense than sight for testing the reality of her per- 
ceptions. For example, once when at a reception she was 
told to take a certain chair in which she saw someone 
sitting. She hesitated, then put out her hand to the figure, 
and, finding nothing, took the chair. In general there is 
such a difference between a mental image and a sensation 
that if the two are opposed to each other there is no 
trouble in distinguishing between them. 

If, however, an image is vivid, and there is no contra- 
dicting sensation, there may be difficulty in determining 
whether the object imaged is present or not. Even then, 
however, the image usually does not seem real. This is 
partly because one is generally conscious of its having 
been called into mind voluntarily or by some association 
and partly because the sense organ is not felt to be active. 
The most favorable condition for mental images to be in- 
distinguishable from sensations excited by present objects 
is that in which the sense organ is excited in an indefi- 
nite way while a mental image is being held in mind. In 
half darkness, when the real outlines of objects are invisi- 
ble, it is easy to see almost any object one may image 
and to believe that it really is present. This is the reason 
why ghosts, wild beasts, etc., are frequently seen in the 

[28] 



IMAGES AND PERCEPTS 

twilight. The feeling of fear arouses an image of that 
which is most feared, and the indefinite sensations from 
some real object give the feeling of reality which makes 
the person believe that his mental image is a genuine 
percept of the imaged object. 

In such cases one has experienced what may be called 
either a hallucination or an illusion. It is generally held 
that if there is no objective stimulus corresponding to the 
mental image it is a hallucination, while if there is an 
objective stimulus that is modified and misinterpreted it 
is an illusion. It is, however, impossible to draw a sharp 
line between hallucinations and illusions of this type. A 
sense organ is usually being stimulated in some way when 
the image is formed, and whenever a hallucinatory image 
seems to be real it is probably because the sense organ 
has had some stimulus that harmonizes with the image. 
Doubtless movement of the sense organ is usually also a 
factor in giving reality to such images. 

The following is a case of auditory illusion which, if 
there had been no analysis of the situation, might have 
been classed as a hallucination : 

One year ago I slept in a room with a porch roof just out- 
side my windows and a large tree near. In the middle of the 
night I awoke, and as I lay listening I could hear voices ; then 
a ladder was placed against the side of the porch, and I heard 
steps mounting the ladder ; then whispers and sounds as of two 
men crossing my porch roof. The window was slowly opened 
and more steps were heard. 

I screamed for help. Mother came, and we discovered the 
steps to have been the branches of the tree rubbing and bump- 
ing on the corner of the house, while the whispers and the voices 
were the leaves rustling in the wind. 

[^9] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

In some cases hallucinations are doubtless caused by 
irritation of a sensory nerve. A common example of this 
is found when quinine produces a ringing in the ears or 
when pressure on the nerve trunk at the elbow produces 
a tingling in the fingers. Persons who have lost a foot 
frequently feel discomfort in an absent toe, caused doubt- 
less by some irritation of the nerve originally connected 
with that member. 

Hallucinations, when they not only seem real but are 
believed in, in spite of the testimony of other people and 
of other senses, become delusions. In such cases the indi- 
vidual is no longer able to distinguish between the world 
of images and the world of real objects. This is a com- 
mon condition of many persons who are insane, and fre- 
quently accounts for their peculiar actions. Temporary 
hallucinations are often produced through illness and by 
the use of drugs. Fortunately most people in normal 
health have no difficulty in distinguishing between their 
mental images and their real experiences with objects that 
are present. 

Suggested and suggesting images. There is a kind of 
illusion, however, in which images play a considerable 
part, that is very common. Most objects with which we 
are familiar are able to give us several kinds of sensation, 
and when we get one of the sensations we are likely to 
image the others. This is the reason why one may almost 
taste the food which he sees, or feel the roughness of a 
file at which he looks. If one is led to form an image 
of a sensation which has frequently been associated with 
one that is actually being received, he may think that he 
is also receiving the sensation which he has imaged. If, 
for instance, one has seen an atomizer and smelled the 

[30] 



IMAGES AND PERCEPTS 

substance diffused in the air by it, it is generally not diffi- 
cult, if you speak of the odor of violets and then use an 
atomizer containing water only, asking him to notice what 
the perfume is, to make him think that he smells violets. 
If a man is given the idea that he is to be bled, and then 
his arm is slightly pricked and some warm water allowed 
to flow over it, he will almost surely think he is bleeding. 
It is claimed that in France a criminal was killed by this 
process of mentally bleeding him to death. 

It has been found in laboratory experiments that if one 
has had the experience of a wire's becoming hot when 
an electric current is turned into it, he will feel the wire 
becoming hot soon after seeing the movement of turning 
on the electricity, although no current is really turned on. 

In some cases a spot resembling a burn has been pro- 
duced on a person's skin by applying a postage stamp 
to it, after giving the subject the idea that he was to be 
burned. In such cases it is probable that imaging the 
spot being touched causes an increased flow of blood to 
that part, and hence there are physiological reasons for 
the redness that results. Illusions of this kind are fre- 
quent and easily produced in a slight degree, yet they are 
generally quickly discovered and corrected. 

Although mental images may cause one occasional illu- 
sions, they serve an important and useful part in our per- 
ceptions. If something has been lost and you join in the 
search for it, you always wish to know what it looks like. 
Your chances of finding it are very much increased by 
holding in your mind an image of its appearance. What 
is true under these circumstances is true of all our per- 
ceptions. If we form some sort of image before looking, 
we perceive much more quickly. If you are expecting to 

[31] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

see a certain person in a crowd or to hear his footstep 
approaching, you will realize his presence much more 
quickly than if you have no such image in mind. Even 
a familiar acquaintance may not be noticed or, if seen, 
may not be recognized immediately if he is in unfamiliar 
surroundings. 

Anticipatory images of what people are about to say 
help us to understand even when they speak indistinctly, 
and in a similar way we may be able to read with rapidity 
poor writing or dimly seen print. The ability thus to 
anticipate sensations increases the speed of all our read- 
ing and is of equal value in our reactions to people. The 
skilled boxer, basket-ball or tennis player continually antici- 
pates his opponent's movements and thus prepares for them 
in advance. 

Standard images. As we become familiar with the 
numberless objects around us we form what may be called 
standard images which play a considerable part in our per- 
ceptions and judgments. These standard images help us 
to translate from one sense to another. We see an object 
of a certain size, and we know just about what sensation 
of weight it will give if we lift it. We see an object at a 
distance of ten feet, and by means of our standard ideas 
of the appearance of objects at various distances we are 
able to compare it with another object two feet or ten 
rods away. Each species of plant and animal has for us 
a standard size and appearance, and we compare any indi- 
vidual specimen with this model and judge as to whether 
it is large or small or in what way it differs from the 
usual. These standard images of form, size, and appear- 
ance of different classes of objects and of different units 
of measure are of great use not only in our perceptions 

[32] 



IMAGES AND PERCEPTS 

but also in constructive and creative imagination. When 
we listen to a description mentioning objects such as apples, 
dogs, horses, fences, trees, etc., our standard images of 
these objects appear. If descriptions are given in detail, 
we modify these images accordingly. Accurate construc- 
tive imagination is possible only when standard images 
are formed and can be correctly compared. 

The notes of the musical scale help to form standard 
auditory images that are useful in music, although there 
may be much variation in the loudness and quality of the 
notes as sounded by different instruments or persons. 
Words often heard also lead to the formation of standard 
images which aid in recognizing those words whatever 
the loudness or quality of the tones in which they are 
spoken. In a similar way, though to a less extent, there 
are standard images of weight, sweetness, coldness, etc. 

EXERCISES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 

1. Experiments on after-images should be made and the results 
compared with those obtained by others. 

2. Examples of illusions due to imagination and of hallucina- 
tions should be recalled and explained. 

3. It will be interesting for several persons to compare the stand- 
ard images that they usually form of certain classes of objects, such 
as " horse," " house," ft soldier," " knife," etc. 

4. Classify the following illustrations and compare them with 
some of your own : 

One night I spent about two hours listening to ghost stories. 
After a while I had occasion to go out of doors. I looked a short 
way ahead of me. There I saw what appeared to be a person in a 
white shirt with blood running from his arm as if he had been hurt. 
My brother investigated and found a bundle of rose bushes and bulbs 

[33] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

with red labels, covered with a piece of white canvas, which had been 
delivered that afternoon. After hearing the ghost stories my imagina- 
tion pictured different unreal images. 

In reading a book, especially if the scene was laid in foreign coun- 
tries, I have been so interested and seemed to have so fully imagined 
myself in the same place as that mentioned in the book that on being 
disturbed it took me a second or so to find I was in my own home. 

I was sent into another room to get a box which was left on the 
table. I had n't seen the box, but I formed an image of it, on the 
corner of the table, while I was walking into the room. 

I read a very good description of a summer day's outing, and 
before I had finished I found that I was fitting each incident with 
a day's outing which I had. 

When anyone describes to me a scene, a gown, a house, I can 
see it vividly. When it isn't described fully I make the picture to 
suit my own taste. For instance, if someone is describing a bungalow 
I have not seen, if I am told about the living room and nothing what- 
ever is said about a fireplace, I see a fireplace in the room, unless 
the person distinctly tells me there is none. As the person continues 
to describe something, I get ahead of what is being said and imagine 
how the object looks. Sometimes I am right, but more often my 
visual image is incorrect. 

If Bunker Hill Monument is mentioned I think of a hot day and 
feel weary. This is due to the fact that I ascended the monument 
on a hot day. 

If a person describes an odor foreign to my sense of smell, I am 
sure to imagine some odor even though it may not be the right one. 



[34] 



CHAPTER IV 

MENTAL LAWS AND IMAGINATION 

Mental habits. Persons who have given the subject 
little attention are inclined to think that mental imagery 
is largely a matter of chance. Careful observation and a 
record of one's images will, however, reveal the fact that 
the same circumstance or word often brings up the same 
image. Sir Francis Galton was one of the first to notice 
this truth. He made a record of the images suggested 
by a list of words, then at long intervals and in various 
surroundings he again made records and was surprised to 
find that in a large proportion of cases the same image 
was suggested whenever the corresponding word was seen. 
In a similar experiment made by the writer upon a class 
of college students, it was found that after the lapse of 
a month, during which there had been a week's vacation, 
nearly one half of the students had the same images that 
they had the first time. In most cases those who did not 
record the same image thought in both experiments of 
some recent experience. These facts suggest that the 
coming of images into the mind is governed by law rather 
than chance. 

The following experiment gives a very clear demon- 
stration of the principal law concerned. If pupils look 
at a series of cards with a letter and a number upon each, 
and some moments later letters of the alphabet are named 
with the request that numbers be written next them, it is 

[35] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

found that about 5 per cent will write the numbers that 
were on the cards with the letters. If a letter has had 
the same number beside it twice, that number will be given 
in about 10 per cent of cases ; while if the same number 
has appeared with the same letter three times, nearly half 
of those taking the experiment will write that number 
when the letter is named. These experiments, as well as 
many others that have been performed in psychological 
laboratories, demonstrate beyond question that the coming 
of images into the mind is determined by the laws of habit. 
The primary law of habit is the law of repetition. If 
two impressions have been received together or in imme- 
diate succession, when the first is again received the sec- 
ond will be reproduced in the mind. The more frequent 
the association of the two impressions the more surely 
will this be the case. In the experiment previously named, 
if a letter has been associated once with one number and 
three times with another, the latter is reproduced in a 
much larger percentage of cases. Frequency of repetition 
is by far the most important law influencing imager) 7 . But 
there are several important modifications or variations of 
this law. (1) If a single experience in certain circum- 
stances has produced a deep impression because of the 
emotion aroused or because of effort associated with it, 
it may have a more lasting effect than several associations 
with something else that were of slight intensity. (2) First 
impressions are nearly always stronger than later ones. 
(3) Experiences that have been recently associated make 
a stronger impression, and one more surely recalls the 
other, than when a longer time has elapsed. Anyone 
who will record the images aroused by certain words and 
situations will usually be able to determine why those 

[36] 



MENTAL LAWS AND IMAGINATION 

images came rather than others that had been associated 
with the same words or circumstances. 

If the image that comes does not seem to be the re- 
sult of repetition, intensity, or recency, a more careful 
study of the preceding and associated states of mind will 
frequently show that the coming of certain images was 
prepared for by several experiences or by purposes that 
one was seeking to realize. Often the image that seems 
to be aroused by a word is really not so much suggested 
by the word itself as by preceding words and the accom- 
panying thought. Notice the image suggested by the word 
in italics in the following sentence. " By the side of the 
road, in a swampy place among the grass and surrounded 
by other flowers, were beautiful flags." Now notice the 
image suggested by the word in italics in this sentence : 
" As they approached the town the sound of a brass band 
and of firecrackers came to their ears, and soon they 
caught sight of flags waving in the breeze." 

Not only do the laws of habit determine what mental 
images shall be brought into the mind but they have a 
very great influence upon the way in which images are 
combined to form a new picture. This is illustrated by 
the following observation : 

Whenever I read a storybook I prefer few or no pictures in 
it, as it seems more real to me to image the characters and 
places. Almost always they are ones with which I am acquainted, 
but they weave themselves into the story without my realizing 
it at first. When anyone tells me of a certain place, a building, 
a room, or the like, I form a mental picture from the descrip- 
tion. That image stays until I actually see the place. Always 
afterward in thinking of it my own first image comes to me 
before the right one. 

[37] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

This expresses what is generally true. We not only- 
form our images according to laws of habit but we arrange 
them in accordance with scenes with which we are familiar, 
and our subsequent imaging is influenced by these earlier 
arrangements. This truth applies not only to reproduc- 
tive and constructive imagination but also to creative. A 
novelist uses images that are familiar to him and con- 
structs plots similar to those in books that he has read, 
and it is exceedingly difficult for him to make his second 
book entirely different from the first. In a similar way 
the poet and the artist create in accordance with models 
familiar to them ; and the influence of habit is further 
shown in the similarity of their creations. 

Associations of similarity and contrast. Sometimes 
mental images seem to come contrary to, rather than in 
accordance with, the laws of habit. For example, we see 
a certain person and immediately think of another person a 
thousand miles away whom we have never seen or thought 
of in connection with the first. It would seem as if the 
image of the second person could not have been brought 
to our minds by any law of habit. It will usually be found 
in such cases that the two persons resemble each other, 
and it may be said that the first suggests the second in 
accordance with the law of similarity. This law doubtless 
plays a large part in our mental life and gives great variety 
to our imaginative activity. If we never formed any image 
except as it was aroused in connection with something 
which preceded or accompanied the original experience, 
our mental representations would be largely of a reminis- 
cent character. Whatever variety there was would be due 
to variety of objective experiences rather than to any varia- 
tion of mental activity. If we always saw a certain man on 

[33] 



MENTAL LAWS AND IMAGINATION 

horseback in the same place, whenever that man was called 
to mind we should think of the horse and the surroundings 
in which they were both seen ; but if we also saw him occa- 
sionally in an automobile and at other times in a train, then 
there is a possibility of variety in our thought in connec- 
tion with him. The image that comes will be determined 
by the frequency, recency, and intensity of association of 
that man with the horse, the automobile, or the train. 

Associations of similarity, however, permit of much 
greater freedom and variety than in the above case. When 
we see this man we may think of some other man with 
the same make of automobile or the same sort of nose 
or disposition, and thus may bring into association experi- 
ences connected not only with that particular man but 
with many other persons, objects, places, and qualities. 

If we look closely into these associations by similarity 
we shall find, however, that they do not represent a dis- 
tinct law opposing that of contiguity, but rather a special 
form of the law of repetition or habit. If a man has a 
very distinctive nose, the rest of his face may be covered, 
and yet you may recognize him. This is clearly in accord- 
ance with the law of habit. Suppose another man has a 
similar nose, and you concentrate your attention upon that 
feature, excluding from notice other portions of his face. 
It will not be strange if the features most frequently asso- 
ciated with that nose come to mind, and thus the man at 
whom you are looking suggests an individual who has 
never before been associated with him in your mind. If 
we regard similarity as consisting of partial identity, then 
it is easy to see how, by concentrating attention upon one 
characteristic of a person or an object, we may, in accord- 
ance with the law of habit, image something similar to 

[39] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

the present object that has been perceived at a different 
time and place. Association by similarity is, therefore, in 
accordance with the fundamental law of habit ; but it dif- 
fers from the usual working of that law in that attention 
makes prominent a part or phase of an experience, and 
thus similar parts or phases of experiences remote in time 
and place are brought to mind. It is because of such asso- 
ciations by similarity that we are able to bring order out 
of confusion, putting together in our minds things that 
are similar but are objectively experienced at different 
times and under different circumstances. This makes 
classification possible and also the activities of inference 
and reasoning, which are always based upon similarity. 

There is another variation of the law of association 
worth noting. When we see an exceedingly tall man, 
instead of thinking of another tall man we may think of 
one who is very short. Such associations of contrast are 
in reality little more than disguised forms of associations 
of similarity. A very tall man and a very short one are 
compared as to the same characteristic, — height, — and 
they are similar in that both vary from the usual type. 
Such associations play a large part in our thinking, for 
reasons additional to those supplied by the law of similarity. 
We become most distinctly aware of a given quality when 
it is presented to us with much variation. We realize 
more keenly what a thing is by contrasting it with what 
it is not. We can only form an idea of a large horse by 
contrasting it with a small one. It is partially for this 
reason that contrasts play such an effective part in all our 
thinking. 

Other laivs than those of habit and association. It is 
evident from the preceding discussion that the laws of 

[40] 



MENTAL LAWS AND IMAGINATION 

repetition, intensity, recency, similarity, and contrast are 
the principal known laws by which imaginative activity is 
explained. It has been claimed that no other laws are 
needed. This may be true, yet it seems strange that the 
most variable of mental operations — imagination — should 
be based upon the fixed laws of habit. Nor does it seem 
true that imaginative people are the ones with the most 
firmly established habits of thought, but quite the oppo- 
site. We know, however, that fixed laws give variable 
results, as in the case of the weather ; and this may well 
be true of the imagination, where the conditions are even 
more obscure than those determining atmospheric changes. 

Our tendencies to image as well as to act are not all 
of equal strength at birth, hence a child may quickly learn 
to image food when he hears certain sounds or sees cer- 
tain objects or movements, but be very slow in learning 
to image the sound associated with a certain letter. In 
other words, instinctive tendencies as well as the laws of 
habit influence the flow of mental imagery. 

The physiological condition which is closely associated 
with an instinctive action may also be an important influ- 
ence. For example, when one is hungry, images of food 
are much more easily suggested to him than at other times. 
In a slightly weakened bodily state, dangers are imagined 
much more readily than when one is strong and vigorous. 
Fatigue or drugs may also greatly modify imagery. 

All persons have the same instincts by which their 
images are directed but not in the same degree, hence 
imagination is greatly influenced by native individual dif- 
ferences in special lines. A series of rhythmical sounds is 
imaged more readily by all persons than a series of non- 
rhythmical sounds, but a child with a " musical ear " may 

[41] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

reproduce a series of musical phrases after one hearing 
better than will another after a dozen repetitions. 

Since individuals thus differ in natural tendencies it is 
not strange that persons who have had the same experi- 
ences and should seemingly, according to the laws of habit, 
form the same images, do, as a matter of fact, show great 
individual differences in their imagery and in their con- 
structive and creative imagination because of differences 
in intensity of the same sensations and images. Imagina- 
tion works according to the same general laws in all per- 
sons, but one must know the natural tendencies and the 
environment, the history and the recent experiences of 
the individual, in order to predict what images will be 
brought to his mind under certain circumstances. With 
some persons this may be comparatively easy, while with 
others we cannot tell even after a long acquaintance just 
what they will do or think when certain things happen. 

In the case of such persons, especially those who are 
inventive or creative in scientific or artistic lines, images 
and ideas seem to generate spontaneously. Even in our 
own minds images appear without our being able to dis- 
cover their progenitors or associates. Careful study, how- 
ever, of both dream and waking imagery shows that, in 
general, the probable origin of such ideas may be discov- 
ered by sufficient study of the conditions and by probing 
into the past experiences of the individual. The seem- 
ingly original ideas of each person accord with his usual 
modes of thinking, whether it be in scientific, musical, 
artistic, or practical lines. 

Besides the laws already mentioned there are two others 
that must be recognized as general. The flow of imagery 
is influenced not only by the images that have been and 

[42] 



MENTAL LAWS AND IMAGINATION 

are present in consciousness but also in a special degree 
by purpose or intention. The kind of imaginative activity 
produced by the sight of triangles depends upon whether 
we are expecting to construct a design of such figures or 
to demonstrate a proposition in geometry. 

The other general law is a tendency, conscious and 
unconscious, to image what is agreeable or pleasant. In 
certain moods an opposite inclination may be observed, 
and sometimes we purposely hold in mind images that 
are disagreeable ; but in the main, if a person is in good 
health, images associated with agreeable feelings appear 
more frequently and remain longer in consciousness than 
those with unpleasant associations. There are, perhaps, 
a few healthy pessimists, but they do not represent the 
generality of mankind. Usually only persons who are not 
w r ell or those who have had very unpleasant experiences 
dwell long upon images suggestive of past and future 
unhappiness. 

Generic and individual images. The laws of habit and 
of economy of energy both tend to limit the variety of 
images that one forms. In accordance with the laws of 
habit one who has seen many kinds of horses will not 
think of all of them but of the kind he has seen most 
often, most recently, or with which he has the most 
intense association. He might think of several kinds, 
one after another, in accordance with these laws, but it 
would be a waste of time and would probably interfere 
with his mental operations more than it would help, in 
most cases. 

In ordinary conversation or reading, a multiplicity of 
images for each object named would be a hindrance. 
Many persons, perhaps unconsciously, select one image 

[43] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

to represent the class of objects indicated by a word. For 
instance, " horse " always calls up in the mind of one girl 
the image of a black driving horse, and this serves to 
give reality to the thought, although she may realize 
clearly that the horse under discussion is entirely different 
from the one imaged. 

The following observation of a normal student is typical : 

I find that when words like "dog," "cat," "desk," "pen- 
cil," " school," and the like are mentioned I immediately image 
the one with which I am most familiar, then generally, if I let 
my mind go, I think of some less familiar and usually recall 
incidents connected with them. 

There are two principal ways in which such typical 
images are formed and used, and by the laws of associa- 
tion such standard images play an important part in mental 
operations. In the minds of some the image most used 
is that of an individual specimen, while in other cases 
no particular individual is represented but there is a more 
or less generalized image involving common characteris- 
tics of the class. To one person "tree" always calls up 
the image of a particular elm tree growing in front of her 
house, while to another it brings only the image of the 
general form of a tree with trunk and branches. There 
is considerable variation in the way in which these two 
types of images are used. Generally, however, people are 
fairly constant in their typical modes of thinking. If, 
when a tree is mentioned, it is described as an oak tree 
just coming into leaf, the person with a generic image of 
a tree modifies it slightly into the characteristic form of 
an oak but does not form a detailed picture of any special 
one, while the person who usually forms an image of an 

[44] 



MENTAL LAWS AND IMAGINATION 

individual tree of the kind of tree described promptly sub- 
stitutes a fairly definite image and in some instances will 
think of a particular specimen. It seems likely that the 
person who makes use of the generic image will be able 
to think more rapidly and freely than the one who deals 
with special images, but that the latter will have a greater 
feeling of reality in connection with his images. 

EXERCISES 

1. The effect of common influences upon a group of persons may 
be indicated by asking a company of people to write the following 
names : (i) a part of speech, (2) a flower, (3) an animal, (4) a noted 
character in history. In a group of twenty or more persons it will 
be found that 75 per cent of them write one of two or three names. 

2. A group of people may be asked to solve mentally the follow- 
ing problem : " A man bought twenty horses at $100 each and forty 
cows at $25 each. How much did they cost? " Great individual dif- 
ferences will be found as to the exact character and arrangement of 
the images formed and modes of procedure followed by each person 
in solving the problem. If these do not appear at once such ques- 
tions as the following will bring them out : Did you image the ani- 
mals? What was the color? How were they grouped? Did you 
image the numbers as figures or as auditory or visual words ? Were 
the numbers represented as seen on paper or on the board and how 
were they arranged ? 

3. A list of words such as "house," "captain," "tree," "school," 
may be given, and each individual may describe the images they 
bring to his mind and try to explain by the laws governing mental 
imagery just why those images rather than others came. 

4. Discuss the probable origin of various so-called original or 
spontaneous ideas of sleeping or waking moments. 

5. Illustrate the fact that some persons use a certain kind of 
imagery much more than any other. 

[45] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

6. Discuss the relative advantages of specific, or individual, as 
compared with generic, or class, images. 

7. Individual comments on the following observations will prob- 
ably prove interesting and instructive. 

When you asked us to think of a day's outing I immediately pic- 
tured to myself everything connected with a drive from Northfield, 
Massachusetts, to Forest Lake in Winchester, New Hampshire. I 
had a very clear and distinct visual image of the way the campus of 
the Northfield Seminary looked that morning, of the horse and car- 
riage, of the road, of Winchester, of the lake, and of the girls with 
whom I went. I could picture our lunch and could tell exactly what 
kind of sandwiches, cake, cookies, pickles, etc. we had. When you 
told us to write I began to think of words to describe my mental 
picture. Before that I had no thought of the words. 

Before I came here to school I had imagined how my room would 
look and I was somewhat disappointed, as I had pictured a single 
room and I found I was to have a double one. This year I knew 
which room I was to have, and I had the arrangement of furniture 
and pictures all visualized nearly as I afterward arranged them. 

Association plays an important part in my images of past events. 
For instance, when I thought of our drive to Forest Lake and of the 
girls with whom I went, I thought of a party I attended with those 
same girls, then of a walk I took with one of them, then of her room- 
mate and of Smith College. The thought of Smith College brought 
up the thought of our head waitress who attended Wellesley College, 
and so on through a long list of events. 

If reading a story, I picture the characters, place, and time. When 
listening to a description I have a visual image of the place being de- 
scribed. Usually it is connected with something similar that I have seen. 

The visual image of a beautiful landscape or sunset stays in my 
mind sometimes for years. 

I cannot so easily call up auditory images. I have heard and en- 
joyed beautiful music many times, but I cannot call up a very dis- 
tinct auditory image of any of it. 

All through the years I have been going to school I find that a 
great deal of my learning has come through the power of imagina- 
tion. In counting from one to one hundred I have a definite arrange- 
ment of the numbers. They appear to start and go in a line upwards 

[46] 



MENTAL LAWS AND IMAGINATION 

from one to ten, then they shoot off and go crosswise by tens up 
to one hundred. I have had this image of counting ever since 1 can 
remember and was surprised to find that other people had different 
arrangements. 

Regarding the days of the week I have a visual image of the 
abbreviations of the names following one right after the other, start- 
ing with Mon. If a day is mentioned, I can immediately see it in 
a certain place. I also have a definite arrangement in my mind of 
the months of the year and of the hours in the day and night. 

In studying history and especially geography I always imagine 
the location of every place that is mentioned and do not feel satisfied 
to go on reading until I have found a location on the map in my 
mind. 

I find that since we have been studying Europe I have a mental 
picture of the map of that continent that is hanging on the wall in 
Miss A.'s room, and every time anything is mentioned concerning 
Europe my mind immediately travels to that particular map. 

Whenever the church bell rings I have an image of the church 
steeple as the source of the sound, and when the fire alarm rings I 
immediately see a picture of the fire station. 



[47] 



CHAPTER V 
IMAGINATION AND MEMORY 

Imaging and locating experiences. When asked to 
observe closely their memory processes most people say 
that images play an important part, and many of them 
think that it would be impossible to remember without 
imaging objects and events, or at least the words naming 
and describing them. They are only partly right. A class 
was shown a dozen objects in a box and later asked to write 
a description of them. Most of them reported that they 
held in mind a visual image of how the objects in the 
box looked and wrote the description from that. When 
asked a few days later to write again what they had seen 
in the box, most of them still imaged the appearance of 
the objects in the box, while some imaged the words that 
they had written previously, and others remembered in 
various ways without vivid and detailed images. 

Many persons believe that memory is made possible and 
accurate by the power to image vividly, and in instances 
like the following this is perhaps true. One normal stu- 
dent says : 

In language work we were required to write a paper on our 
observation lesson. I noticed that I pictured the room, the work 
on the board, the pupils, and the conversation very vividly. With 
these images before me I was able to write about the lesson. 
In the geography class we took up sun work. In order to get 
the location of the sun, I pictured it as I had seen it at different 
times in the year. 

[48] 



IMAGINATION AND MEMORY 

Another student says : 

Quotations that I learned in grammar school I can see now 
in my mind, with the exact location on the page, the length, and, 
to a great extent, the punctuation. This is a great help to 
memory I have found, especially in writing a quotation. 

Doubtless the majority of people are greatly aided in 
memory by vivid images, and a few can depend upon 
them almost as they would upon fresh perceptions ; but 
it is probable that in most cases images do not contribute 
greatly to accuracy of memory, although they do make 
what is remembered more vivid and interesting. In the 
box experiment previously mentioned there was a pen, a 
spoon, and a knife, but no pencil or fork. Many persons 
evidently had the image of a pencil and of a fork sug- 
gested to them by the other objects. A few days later, 
when questioned regarding the contents of the box, sev- 
eral of them recalled an image of the pencil and of the 
fork that they had formed when looking at the other 
objects, and in some instances were sure that they had 
seen there a pencil of a certain color and a fork with a 
certain number of tines. 

It is evident from -such cases as this that a tendency 
to vivid imagery may lead as readily to false as to true 
memory. The essential element in memory is not that 
objects and events shall be vividly imaged, but that they 
shall be properly located with relation to each other and 
in relation to those associated with them at a particular 
time. Vividness of imagery may be of little help in accu- 
racy of location, but some imagery is often necessary in 
order to get the right associations in memory. With 
many persons distinct images of the space relations of 
objects are of great help. 

[49] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

People who form vivid images freely in response to a 
suggestion may easily be led into mistaken memories. 
For instance, one sees or hears a person make certain 
movements, forms vivid images of what the person is 
probably doing, and may later, in all good faith, report 
something entirely false regarding what occurred. In 
order that vividness of imagery may not subject one to 
error there should be a frequent comparison of images 
with fresh perceptions, and care exercised that images are 
accurate as well as vivid. The following is a typical in- 
stance of the way in which memory may be falsified by 
the imagination : 

Early this morning I had to write on creative imagination. 
I imagined it was done and how it looked, and if I had not 
heard the bell I should have gone to sleep again without writing 
my paper, because I thought I had written it. 

Constructive imagination and memory. The essential 
truths regarding the use of constructive imagination and 
memory are indicated by the following quotation : 

In reading or studying, just so long as I can construct an 
image for each word, I can understand and reproduce what I 
read, but as soon as the subject matter becomes so complex or 
so foreign to all my former experiences that I can no longer 
picture it to myself, I cannot remember a word of what I have 
read either once or a number of times. 

Most students are greatly helped by using their con- 
structive imagination not only in studying such subjects 
as history and geography but also in memorizing poetry 
and other literary selections. By means of the images 
that they form they recall the words much more quickly. 
Students of another type, instead of imaging that for 

[50] 



IMAGINATION AND MEMORY 

which the words stand, first image the words themselves 
and then perhaps form some images corresponding to 
their meaning. 

Another method less common, except in the case of 
mature students, is that of forming only a few distinct 
images of suggestive words, or of the most significant 
elements of a situation, in getting the meaning of what 
is studied. 

Vividness in the use of constructive imagination in 
reading and studying renders the subject matter much 
more interesting and impressive, but it does not neces- 
sarily help in accuracy of reproduction. To many people 
reading without vividly constructing would be like going 
through the motions of eating without experiencing any 
taste sensation. It is doubtless true, however, that very 
few people form images exactly in accordance with de- 
scriptions. They image in detail, according to their own 
pleasure or habit, what is mentioned or described only in 
general terms. These images may vary greatly from those 
in the mind of the writer or speaker and from the reality. 
This is especially true of images of persons. Many peo- 
ple form very distinct images of persons of whom they 
hear, which are unwarranted by any description which has 
been given. One young lady found it almost impossible 
to enjoy a moving-picture dramatization of " Little Lord 
Fauntleroy " because the mother of Cedric was so differ- 
ent in features and complexion from what she had imag- 
ined. Many people who seem to have very unreliable 
memories are subject to errors not so much because they 
cannot reproduce what they have heard as because they 
construct images varying materially from those naturally 
suggested by the words. To this inaccuracy of the 

[5i] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

constructive imagination rather than to lack of memory 
may be ascribed many of the mistakes in reproducing 
what has been told. 

Conflict of memory and creative imagination. It is not 
only because constructive imagination is inaccurate but 
because there is a strong tendency to the use of creative 
imagination that errors occur in repeating what one has 
been told or has read. There is a decided inclination to 
image that which is agreeable to us. Hence in listening 
or reading one may make little effort to construct in ac- 
cordance with the words used, but additional images are 
brought to mind, and these are combined in agreeable or 
desired ways with those naturally suggested by the words 
heard or seen. Afterward, in attempting to repeat the 
description or story, these products of creative imagination 
are accurately reproduced, but the exact truth is not told. 

This tendency of creative imagination to prevent accu- 
racy of memory is not confined to what one has read or 
heard but applies also to one's memory of his own experi- 
ences. A man who frequently told an incident of his own 
boyhood to Sunday-school children, in order to give point 
to some moral lesson, became conscious after a while of the 
fact that he was not telling the story as he had formerly 
told it. The desire to make certain truths prominent had 
led him to modify unconsciously his images of what had 
really occurred in his boyhood. 

Very few people can report correctly any experience 
that is at all exciting. They recall only a few vivid 
images of what actually occurred. These images suggest 
what, under ordinary circumstances, would be associated 
with them, and creative imagination quickly reproduces a 
whole scene. Desire and purpose so influence creative 

[52] 



IMAGINATION AND MEMORY 

imagination that one's account of his own adventures is 
likely to be much more favorable to him than an accurate 
description would be. 

So frequently is creative imagination opposed to accuracy 
of memory that unreliability in memory is often ascribed 
to a too active imagination, and imagination is often sup- 
posed to be necessarily concerned with what is not true. 
This latter supposition is of course entirely unwarranted, 
and the possession of a vivid imagination does not neces- 
sarily render memory inaccurate. One may picture as 
vividly as he pleases without being led into error, provid- 
ing that he will at the same time carefully distinguish 
between what actually occurred or was reported to him 
and what he pictures as the possible, probable, or desired 
circumstances. 

Special varieties of images as aids to memory. Some 
persons in order to remember a name need to hear it pro- 
nounced repeatedly, others must see it distinctly written 
or printed, and still others find it necessary to speak or 
write it themselves. Such facts as these have led to much 
discussion with regard to individual types of images and 
the use of imagery in memorizing. Some individuals re- 
member best what they see, others what they hear, and 
others those things in which their own movements are 
involved. 

Where such tendencies are very pronounced it would 
seem that various methods of teaching and studying would 
be most effective according as they harmonized with the 
type of imagery of individual students. The question of 
which method to use seems to be most prominent in 
connection with memorizing lists of names and in learn- 
ing to spell. Visual methods of teaching are now very 

[53] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

common, and it is claimed that on this account those who 
have a strong tendency to the use of auditory or motor 
images are placed at a disadvantage. This is probably 
true, but a long series of experiments have not yet evolved 
accurate means of determining just how prominent the 
tendency is in any particular individual to use a certain 
type of imagery. 

The matter is much more complicated than at first 
seems to be the case. If you test a group of individuals 
by showing them a list of words, then by speaking an- 
other list of words, you cannot be at all sure that they 
will remember the words in corresponding images. If a 
person has a strong tendency to auditory imagery, when 
he sees a word he will form an image of how it would 
sound, and when he recalls it the sound rather than the 
visual appearance comes to his mind. In a similar way 
a person with the visual type of imagery will picture the 
appearance of words that he hears and will then remem- 
ber those visual images rather than his auditory impres- 
sions. The person with the motor type of imagery makes 
movements and images of movements when he receives 
auditory or visual impressions, which aid him in his future 
recollections. It is found that the average number of 
words reproduced by a class is usually increased by having 
them seen, heard, and spoken or written, but this does 
not necessarily mean that each individual can remember 
better that which appeals to several senses than what is 
repeatedly impressed upon one. Such a procedure gives 
persons of all types of imagery a chance to learn through 
the kind of impressions they prefer. Hence there are 
fewer failures. The fact remains, however, that persons 
who have a strong tendency to one type of imagery are 

[54] 



IMAGINATION AND MEMORY 

frequently confused more than they are aided by the 
presentation of either single words or selections in several 
ways. The visualizer may learn more quickly by reading a 
selection twice than by reading it once and hearing it once 
and reading aloud or writing it once, and similar facts 
hold true for those of the auditory type. 

EXERCISES 

1. Individual reports should be given as to the part that images 
play, (i) in remembering what one has experienced, (2) in learning 
and recalling words, figures, or diagrams. 

2. Reports should also be given as to the value of constructive 
imagination in remembering what is read or heard. 

3. To what extent does the tendency to create pictures that are 
agreeable to oneself interfere with accurate memory? 

4. Report upon the kind of sensations and images that are most 
effective for you in memorizing. Do you get most help from repeatedly 
seeing, hearing, or speaking words or from forming the correspond- 
ing images? 



[55] 



CHAPTER VI 

FEELING AND IMAGINATION 

Images and sensory feelings. The following is a typical 
instance of feeling aroused by mental images : 

When a sail that I took last summer was mentioned, I imme- 
diately felt the motion of the boat and had a mental picture of 
the view of the harbor. When I think of the beautiful residence 
of Mrs. F., especially on a warm sultry day, I form a mental 
picture of the pure white marble colonial mansion, with its 
splendid columns, and the great smooth lawn in front that 
extends to a high stone wall against which I can hear the dash- 
ing of the waves, and I feel refreshed and in a very quiet, 
peaceful mood. 

Another says : " When I read an interesting book, 
images are formed not only of characters and scenes but 
of delicious things to eat and of lovely odors, such as the 
scent of roses." 

To some persons the memory of a burn seems to be 
actually painful, and the taste image of certain substances 
may give almost as intense feelings as did the original 
taste sensation. Many people have the power to see again 
with the eye of memory beautiful scenes which they visited 
perhaps years ago. A few persons are able to enjoy re- 
peatedly in retrospect a musical treat by imaging the 
music that they have heard. To reexperience the feelings 
accompanying movements by imaging the movements is 
not at all unusual. 

[56] 



FEELING AND IMAGINATION 

In such instances it is evident that the images not only 
produce feelings similar to those experienced originally 
but that the accompanying mood or emotional state is 
reproduced to a greater or less extent. Vividness of im- 
agery doubtless has a much more important effect upon 
the feelings than it has upon the efficiency of intellectual 
operations. 

There seem to be exceptions to the general rule that 
images produce the same sort of feeling as accompanied 
the original sensations. These seeming exceptions are 
usually the result of contrast. Reminiscences of hardships 
endured may give considerable pleasure in the present, 
but this is the case only when the outcome of those hard- 
ships was a happy one or when the present condition is 
pleasantly contrasted with the former. The memory of 
former joys is pleasurable unless present unhappiness is 
contrasted with them and takes the dominant place in 
consciousness. 

Constructive imagination and emotional states. The 
emotional effects produced by speakers and writers upon 
their audiences and readers depend very largely upon their 
ability to arouse images associated with various feelings 
of a certain type and so arranged and combined as to 
produce a distinct and unified effect. Hatred for a per- 
son or a party is aroused and intensified by words which 
suggest unpleasant images and evil practices in connec- 
tion with that person or party, such as " schemes of 
the gang"; while love, admiration, and enthusiasm for 
another person, party, or country are awakened and 
developed by words suggesting mental pictures that are 
agreeable and inspiring, such as " noble deeds of loyal 
patriots." 

[57] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

A skillful appeal to the imagination may produce a 
much more distinct and intense feeling than would per- 
sonal acquaintance with the person and the incidents. 
Falstaff is a delightfully enjoyable character to the imagina- 
tion, but in actual experience such an individual would 
probably be disgusting. Although his grossness is sug- 
gested by Shakespeare, yet his amusing qualities are made 
so much more prominent that we enjoy picturing his 
actions and words. Little Nell arouses the deepest feel- 
ings of compassion, but many of those who are most 
stirred by her sorrows as portrayed by the master of fic- 
tion, if acquainted with such a girl in daily life, where 
the pathetic is mingled with the commonplace and even 
the disagreeable, would fail to have their emotions of pity 
aroused. It is because great writers skillfully select and 
combine images so as to produce a complex, unified, emo- 
tional state of a certain kind in their readers that litera- 
ture is often more interesting and enjoyable than real life, 
and imaginary characters are more influential as ideals 
than real persons whose attractiveness is lessened by 
prosy details. 

Mood and creative imagi?zation. There is a reverse 
side to the phenomena of images and of emotional states 
which is especially prominent in creative imagination. In- 
stead of the feelings being aroused by the images that 
are suggested, we have the phenomenon of feelings gen- 
erating images of experiences of a corresponding type. 
A person who has a fit of the blues due to fatigue or 
other physiological disturbances may have suggested to 
his mind images of experiences associated with unpleasant 
feeling, and he may form much darker pictures of his 
present situation and of the future than the facts justify. 

[53] 



FEELING AND IMAGINATION 

Present feeling seems to act as a selective agent in bring- 
ing into consciousness images associated with unpleasant 
experiences or images that contrast unpleasantly with 
what is now being experienced, and to so direct the 
combination of these images as to greatly increase the 
unpleasant feelings and the corresponding depression. 
The imagination thus intensifies and justifies the emo- 
tional state, and many people think that the images with 
which the mind has been occupied are the real cause of 
the mood. In a large proportion of cases, however, a 
depression of the vital functions and the consequent dis- 
agreeable feelings were the chief cause of the unpleasing 
images occupying the mind and the consequent mental 
depression. 

Sometimes, however, the cause is primarily mental, 
although lowered vitality is a contributing factor. Sorrow, 
failure, or disappointment coming when one is fatigued 
is likely to call to mind memories of similar experiences 
and cause the creative imagination to build up a gloomy 
picture of the future, while in vigorous health such an 
unpleasant experience would perhaps suggest by contrast 
former successes and pleasures and lead to picturing a 
brighter future shortly to be enjoyed. 

Instincts and imagination. Instinctive tendencies, of 
which we may or may not be aware, play a very promi- 
nent part in stimulating and directing the imagination. 
The hungry person finds images concerned with food and 
eating persistently coming into mind, and the longer he 
remains hungry the more will such images predominate 
in his mental processes. When his needs have been fully 
satisfied such images disappear, and it may be difficult to 
voluntarily bring them into consciousness. 

[59] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

An individual in whom fear is aroused promptly develops 
an exceedingly active imagination concerning possible 
sources of danger. This instinct may almost completely 
control one when he is alone and in darkness. The faint- 
est sights and sounds arouse images of objects, animals, 
forces of nature, diseases, or persons that are feared, and 
these images are combined into what seems to be a real 
situation of danger. The actual sensations experienced 
may have no connection with anything that is dangerous, 
and if the instinctive fear were not aroused would pass 
either without notice or with the usual commonplace inter- 
pretation. But when fear is present they produce images 
that recall others associated with fear, and soon there is in 
the mind of the individual a mental picture of a situation 
that is decidedly precarious. What is true of the instincts 
of hunger and fear is true of all the other instincts, as is 
shown most clearly in literature. Evidently love, religion, 
and ambition, or the desire for approval, are among the 
strongest stimuli to the creative imagination, since they are 
most frequently involved in artistic and literary productions. 

Desire and imagijiation. Without desire there is little 
constructive or creative imagination. Images may be 
brought to mind in accordance with the laws of associa- 
tion, but there will be little activity in the way of forming 
them into complete pictures, unless by so doing some 
desired end is likely to be gained. The most vivid de- 
scription of how a game may be played or some object 
constructed will not result in a unified picture unless there 
is some desire to understand or to do which directs the 
combination of images. Still less does the creative imag- 
ination become active without the stimulus of mood or 
desire. Desire is not only a stimulus to the imagination 

[60] 



FEELING AND IMAGINATION 

but it is a very large factor in determining what images 
shall be brought to mind and how they shall be combined. 
The girl who wishes to go to a party frequently finds it 
almost impossible to keep her thoughts away from things 
connected with that festivity. If there are difficulties in 
the way of her going, she imagines a thousand possible 
ways of overcoming them, and it is astonishing how much 
ingenuity she may show in getting her heart's desire, even 
though ordinarily she may not seem to have much initia- 
tive or originality. If there is no difficulty about going, 
but the experience is a new one, then her mind may be 
filled with images of flowers, lights, music, delicious re- 
freshments, the charming people she may meet, and the 
interesting things that may happen. She may picture so 
vividly imaginary scenes as to become entirely uncon- 
scious of her present surroundings. 

The surest way of stimulating imagination is to excite 
desire of some kind. The person with many unsatisfied 
longings is always the possessor of an active imagination, 
unless he has given up all hope of attainment. 

On the other hand and yet in accordance with the same 
principle of unfulfilled activity, what is feared or abhorred 
is a strong stimulus to the imaginative activity. In both 
sleeping and waking life images of fear and horror come 
unbidden to some persons and dominate their creative 
imagination. 

EXERCISES 

1. To what extent can you get the same feelings from mental 
images that you get from sensations ? 

2. What relation is there between the vividness of the images 
that arise in connection with certain emotions and the strength of 
the emotion you experience? Illustrate. 

[6,] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

3. Give examples of the images and emotions aroused in your 
mind by certain pieces of literature. 

4. Study Poe's analysis of the construction of " The Raven " and 
see how far the nature and vividness of the images aroused produce 
the intended emotional effect. Analyze some other selection in a 
similar way. 

5. Illustrate the fact that emotions stimulate the creative imagina- 
tion and increase its vividness. 

6. Illustrate the influence of desire and also of dread upon the 
imagination. 



[62] 



CHAPTER VII 

IMAGINATION AND DREAMING 

Dream imagery. Images do not differ greatly in kind 
and in the ways in which they are brought into existence, 
whether they appear in daydreams, ordinary night dreams, 
or in dreams that occur in sickness, under the influence 
of drugs, or in the hypnotic state. Dreams may be more 
vivid under some circumstances than under others, but if 
they are dominantly visual in one state they are usually 
so in all, and the same is true as regards other kinds of 
imagery. The chief difference between a night dream 
and a daydream is that in the latter case consciousness 
is more complete. One is, to some extent, aware of his 
surroundings and knows that .his images are mental. In 
night dreams the senses are only slightly active and 
the dream images fully occupy consciousness so that all 
seem real. 

In no form of dream can anything be represented the 
elements of which one has not experienced sensorially, 
and in all sorts of dreams the coming and arrangement 
of images is largely independent of will, although in day- 
dreams there may be a little conscious guidance of the 
imaginative activity. 

A person born blind can no more dream of visual ex- 
periences than he can image them in his waking state. 
A study of the dreams of the blind reveals the fact that 
those who have been blind from an early age dream in 

[63] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

terms of touch and motion or of sound. Very few of those 
who were less than three years old when sight was lost 
have any visual images in their dreams. Nearly all of 
those who were over seven when they became blind have 
visual images in their dreams and also in their ordinary 
waking life. Of those between three and seven some 
dream in visual terms and some do not. 

The dreams of persons who are both blind and deaf 
are almost wholly in terms of touch and motion. They 
not infrequently talk in their sleep with their fingers as 
many normal people do with their vocal organs. Dream 
images are generally more vivid than waking images, or 
at least they seem so. This is probably due to the fact 
that there are few or no sensations to contrast with them. 

Sensations and dreams. Although the senses are to a 
considerable extent closed in sleep, they play some part in 
dream imagery, and in many instances the dream image 
is modified or suggested by sensations. When asleep, if 
the eyes are fatigued or painful, dreams may result, while 
the repeated flashing of light that does not waken the 
sleeper may produce the same effect. Probably the most 
common sources of dream imagery are bodily sensations 
coming from the internal organs and kinesthetic and 
touch sensations caused by the position in which one is 
lying. Touch sensations, especially those of temperature, 
very often excite dream images. It is not at all unusual 
for one whose feet have become uncovered to dream of 
walking barefoot in the snow. 

These facts regarding dream images as produced by 
sensations have been obtained not only by observing 
what sensations were being experienced at the moment 
of waking but by many careful experiments in which 

[641 



IMAGINATION AND DREAMING 

sleeping individuals were stimulated sensorially and then 
awakened and asked to relate their dreams. 

So nearly alike are dream images and sensations that 
it is sometimes impossible for one to tell whether he is 
remembering a dream or a real experience. If the dream 
experience has been concerned with other places, persons, 
and things than those which appear to him when he 
awakes, he knows at once that he has been dreaming. 
Otherwise he may be in doubt. If you have dreamed 
that some person staying in the house came into your 
room, did certain things, and then went out again, it may 
be utterly impossible for you to tell whether the person 
was in the room or not. You can determine the truth of 
the matter only by questioning the person or someone else 
who might know, or by observing whether any object in 
the room has been displaced in accordance with your dream. 

Recent experiences and dreams. Aside from what may 
be called " stock dreams," which occur again and again, 
a close study of the subject reveals the fact that nearly 
all dreams are connected in some way with recent experi- 
ence. This is most readily noted in the case of unusual 
and exciting occurrences. The person who has been in a 
fire or a train wreck frequently suffers more in his dreams 
than he did in his actual experience. The painful inci- 
dents stand out more clearly than in the original, where 
the tragic was mingled with the commonplace. 

In the case of events less exciting the dreams are much 
less like memories, and contradictory experiences are often 
associated with the same person. The death of a friend 
or relative is a frequent cause of dreams, but usually the 
person is represented as alive and frequently the circum- 
stances are very pleasant. 

[65] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

New experiences, even though not very exciting, are 
a common source of dreams, but very often the persons, 
objects, and events concerned are so modified and con- 
fused with images from experiences long past that one may 
not at first realize that recent events occasioned the dream. 

Fatigue plays a considerable part in dream imagery, 
and often the whole dream is somewhat in the nature of an 
after-image. One may continue in his dreams the physi- 
cal or mental activity in which he was engaged just be- 
fore going to sleep. The same thing is done or attempted 
over and over again, usually under difficulties and seem- 
ingly with little success. Sometimes, however, the condi- 
tion is reversed, perhaps more frequently when there is 
partial recovery from fatigue, and a problem which could 
not be solved when awake is solved in a dream. A num- 
ber of instances have been reported of correct dream 
solutions of mathematical and other problems which had 
baffled the waking consciousness. In a few instances the 
solution has been found written on paper, although the 
individual had no recollection of the dream success. More 
often, however, seemingly satisfactory solutions of difficult 
problems are found to be quite otherwise when one be- 
comes fully awake. What seems wonderfully clear and 
convincing, when dreaming and at the moment of waking, 
becomes less and less definite and reasonable as one 
considers it. 

Wishes and dreams. Some psychologists have gone so 
far as to say that dreams are always more or less directly 
expressive of wishes or desires. This is probably an over- 
emphasis upon one of several factors involved in stimulat- 
ing and directing dream experiences. Wishes in the broad 
sense of the term correspond to activities that have been 

[66] 



IMAGINATION AND DREAMING 

initiated and have not ceased or have not reached a cul- 
mination. Their effect is therefore not unlike that of 
occupations that have been carried on just before going 
to sleep and which continue in the same or in a modified 
form in dreams. Suppressed desires play a large part in 
dream experiences, but they are frequently so disguised 
that only an expert student of dreams is able to detect 
them and demonstrate their real relation. 

In nervous disorders, especially those due to suppres- 
sion of desires or of natural impulses, a study of the 
dreams of the patient will frequently give a clue to the 
original sources of the difficulty. Not infrequently impulses 
or desires that were suppressed and covered up, perhaps 
in early childhood, have remained for many years a dis- 
turbing element in the mental processes. Sometimes in 
such cases the subject himself has forgotten the original 
incident until it is recalled to him by close questioning, 
either in the normal or in the hypnotic state. Dream ex- 
periences are frequently used successfully as a basis for 
such questioning and have thus come to play a large part in 
the treatment of mental disorders and associated physical 
disabilities. 

Desire and abhorrence frequently combine in the pro- 
duction of images of a certain type, as when a soldier 
who desires to be brave but fears that he will prove a 
coward dreams of being disgraced by cowardly acts, or 
when one dreams of yielding to temptation of any kind. 

EXERCISES 

1. Report upon dreams that seem farthest removed from any 
actual event, and analyze the images to see if their elements are the 
result of sensory experiences. 

[67] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

2. Describe dreams that were difficult to distinguish from actual 
experiences. 

3. Give examples in which sensations experienced at the time 
were clearly the cause of dreams. 

4. Analyze dreams to find how far they reflect recent experiences. 

5. Show the part that desire and aversion play in some of your 
dreams. 

6. In what respects does your dream imaging correspond to your 
working imagination when you are not striving to accomplish a 
definite thing? 

7. In what respect do your dreams when asleep correspond to 
your daydreams, or waking imagination? 

8. Compare your nonvoluntary, waking imagination, or daydreams, 
with your dream experiences, noting likeness and difference. 



[68] 



CHAPTER VIII 
REASONING AND IMAGINATION 

Similarity and purpose in reasoning. All reasoning is 
based on similarity and leads to a conclusion. The chief 
difference between daydreaming and reasoning is that in 
reasoning associations of similarity are more prominent, 
while symbols and general truths partly take the place of 
images. Purpose and selective attention also hold a more 
prominent place than in daydreaming. These distinguish- 
ing qualities of reasoning make it inevitable that there 
shall be a more complete analysis and careful noting of 
exact points of resemblance. The images characteristic 
of dreaming are also more or less characteristic of reason- 
ing ; but in reasoning, what the image stands for, rather 
than the image itself, is of most importance. 

Most of the students who were asked whether they 
believed in capital punishment or not, and their reasons, 
reported that in thinking about the matter they formed 
concrete images. 

When the words " capital punishment " came to my ears I 
immediately saw a condemned man with handcuffs on, standing 
in a court room with a hopeless look on his face. 

When asked my opinion I began to wonder how this law 
affected the rest of the world and came to my conclusion. 

When asked my reasons I could see one bad man in a street 
filled with good people, and wondered why he should be allowed 
to return to them after he had committed crime demanding 
capital punishment. 

[69] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

I saw the words " capital punishment," then I saw a man 
killing another, and the image of an electric chair. Then I saw 
the picture of a man, haggard and hatless, skulking along the 
side of a building. Then I saw a man, who had been imprisoned 
for life, killing his guard. 

First I saw an image of a man with a black robe around 
him and a rope attached to his neck, with several men stand- 
ing around him. Then I saw the same man with his relatives 
before he entered the death room, everyone crying but the 
intended victim. 

A few had only symbol or verbal images, as in the 
following case : 

At first I thought of the word itself, and thought it came 
from caput, thus meaning " beheading " or " life taking." When 
asked for my belief I at first thought " yes," because of a specific 
remembrance of the trouble in imprisonment in the Thaw case. 
Then I thought of the frequent unfairness and injustice. Also 
I thought that it (imprisonment) is really a worse punishment 
than taking life, if just ; and if unjust, the man has a chance. 
I thought that a man might do something very wrong and yet 
be of use to society in some ways. 

The kind of imagery was mainly verbal and very slightly 
auditory, with practically no visual imagery except the visual 
image of the word. 

In another experiment students were asked whether a 
hunter who passed entirely around a tree in which there 
was a squirrel, which moved so as to keep hidden from 
him all the time, really went around the squirrel. All re- 
ported concrete images. In this case images of space 
relations are a necessary part of the reasoning process, 
but there is loss rather than gain in imaging in detail the 

[70] 



REASONING AND IMAGINATION 

exact appearance of the man, the species of the tree, 
and the squirrel, although some do so. 

It is found that in some instances reasoning is not cor- 
rect because of the lack of definite images. For example, a 
number of children were given this problem : "If you were 
to walk directly west from here three miles, and then a car- 
riage were to come along and you were to get in and ride 
east two miles, how far would you be from this place ? " A 
large proportion of the answers were either " five miles " 
or " six miles." Evidently the children did not in this 
case form definite images of space relations, but followed 
their habitual method of dealing with problems which 
sound very much like this one, by either adding or mul- 
tiplying. A concrete image of the person as moving in 
one direction and then along the same course in the oppo- 
site direction does lead to the correct conclusion. Such 
concrete imagery is not, however, absolutely necessary to 
the solution of this problem. One may think of east and 
west as opposites of each other without concretely repre- 
senting movements in space. Evidently an image of the 
features or clothes of the person walking would be of 
no value. 

In solving such a problem as the following, many 
normal-school and college students fail either because they 
do not image concretely or do not analyze and observe 
the essential elements : " If it is worth sixty cents a cord 
to cut cordwood into two pieces, what will it be worth to 
cut it into three pieces ? " 

Symbols and exact reasoning. In exact reasoning, of 
which mathematics, especially algebra, may serve as a type, 
the images used must be almost wholly symbols represent- 
ing relations rather than concrete images of things. In 

[7>] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

geometry images of the lines, angles, and figures play a 
large part in reasoning. One who has good control of 
visual imagery may work out propositions quite success- 
fully without any apparatus for making actual lines. In 
all geometrical reasoning the lines and figures are partly 
concrete and partly symbolical. A concrete triangle is 
represented on paper or in the mind, but unless one thinks 
of that triangle as being merely suggestive of any triangle 
of the same type, whatever the length of its sides, his 
reasoning is likely to lead to false conclusions. 

When the lines in a figure are designated by letters 
and their relations are expressed in algebraical form, think- 
ing may become wholly symbolical. To many persons such 
thinking is vague and uncertain unless they also image 
the lines symbolized. Without thus picturing lines of 
various lengths and inclinations combined to form the 
type of figure being considered, they feel no assurance of 
the correctness of their conclusions. In order to reason 
with any degree of clearness regarding the proposition 
they must do a good deal of concrete imaging. To ad- 
vanced mathematicians, who have developed to a high 
degree the power of abstract thinking, concrete imaging 
seems childish and a waste of time. 

Many scientific persons take satisfaction in using alge- 
braical symbols instead of concrete instances, even when 
their reasoning is not concerned with mathematical quan- 
tities. For example, in psychology, instead of saying, 
" The odor of an orange recalls to mind images of its 
form, color, and taste," they say, " Sensation A brings 
into consciousness images B, C, and D that have been 
associated with it." Such a mode of thinking lacks in 
concrete representation of actual experiences, but gains in 

[72] 



REASONING AND IMAGINATION 

brevity and generality. In the instance quoted, the exact 
points necessary for reaching a conclusion regarding the 
laws of association are represented by the symbols, without 
loss of time and without the confusion occasioned by 
representing unessential details and variations that do not 
change the truth involved. 

To many people, however, such abstract or symbolic 
reasoning is very unsatisfactory. They prefer to represent 
a concrete experience, and with that as a basis reach the 
conclusion that certain results will follow, not only in the 
instance represented but in all other instances of the same 
type. Some people can reason nearly as rapidly in this 
way as others can by the use of symbols only, while other 
persons must spend considerable time in representing not 
only the one concrete instance but many others before 
they can reach a conclusion. 

It is claimed by some persons that a representation even 
of symbols is not necessary, and there has been consider- 
able discussion whether such " imageless thought " is pos- 
sible or not. In cases where an individual is not distinctly 
conscious of either concrete or symbol images it is probable 
that some vaguely represented or actual movements of vocal 
organs, hand, eye, etc., play an important part in the mental 
operations. When the mind is dealing with familiar mean- 
ings in the usual way, there is less need for images of 
any kind. It may, therefore, be true that many people 
do some thinking without images of sufficient distinctness 
to be noticeable, and that some do nearly all their thinking 
in that way. 

The definitions given by children at different ages show 
that the older they become the less surely are concrete ex- 
periences associated with words. For example, the primary 

[73] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

child says, when he is asked to tell what the following 
words mean : car — " goes on a track" ; trouble — "when 
you break a glass" ; pretty — "got a pretty dress" ; school 
— "where you learn " ; study — "writing " ; bee — " bumble- 
bee " ; while an older pupil gives more abstract defini- 
tions, such as these : bee — " a small insect which is able 
to change the nectar of flowers into honey" ; pretty — 
"something that is beautiful"; trotcble — "in danger." 
It is found also in testing the definitions of older pupils 
that the more familiar the word is the less are concrete 
experiences used in defining it. It seems probable, then, 
that in certain stages of development of the process of 
thinking and reasoning in any line, images are necessary, 
but that later the concrete images may be eliminated, and 
that even images of symbols may, in the case of some 
persons, have ultimately little place in thought processes. 
With others, however, vivid images, either of some typ- 
ical experience or of symbols used in representing that 
experience, are necessary to clear thinking, and with use 
such images become more, rather than less, vivid. In a 
large proportion of cases the images in ordinary thinking 
are vague and fleeting, but when there is hesitation or 
doubt they are made more vivid and perhaps also more 
concrete. 

Images, judgment, and decision. In the case of most 
persons concrete imagery has a great influence upon judg- 
ment and choice. This fact is well recognized by skilled 
orators, politicians, and advertisers. The political leader 
who succeeded in getting voters to associate with the 
name of his party the image of a workman with a full 
dinner pail won the election. A vivid picture of concrete 
instances of undesirable happenings when a certain tariff 

[74] 



REASONING AND IMAGINATION 

policy was enforced, in contrast with instances of happi- 
ness and prosperity when the country was living under 
another tariff law, has more effect upon the judgment of 
men with regard to tariff policies and upon their choice 
of party than the most logical abstract demonstrations of 
the fundamental principles of political economy. 

The convincing speaker is the one who calls up in the 
minds of his auditors a concrete picture which is not only 
vivid but which arouses distinct feelings of a certain kind 
and then associates that picture with the person, party, or 
principle that he wishes them to favor or condemn. Vivid- 
ness of representation sways the judgment and directs the 
will of the great majority of people to a far greater extent 
than does accurate classification according to similarity and 
careful reasoning in accordance with principles of logic. 

Imaging in induction and deduction. In inductive rea- 
soning, previous concrete experiences form the basis of 
expectation or inference as to what is likely to happen 
under given circumstances. This kind of reasoning is 
sometimes little more than the working of the law of habit 
and hence does not necessarily involve much imaging. 
In our everyday experiences we learn to act in ways that 
bring the most satisfactory results, but we do not neces- 
sarily distinctly represent former occasions. We expect 
that food of a certain appearance will taste in a certain 
way, and we anticipate the touch sensations which may 
be gained from an object giving certain visual sensations. 
We know what will happen if a glass is dropped upon a 
stone or if a piece of wood is thrown into the water. 

When, however, we attempt to formulate a general 
truth, such as the statement that lowering the tempera- 
ture causes the moisture in the air to condense in the 

[75] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

form of drops of water, we must observe much more 
closely, note similarities of conditions, and do a good deal 
of imaging before we clearly perceive the basis of the 
general truth and are able to express it in words. After 
such a general truth has been formulated, and we attempt 
to use it in deductive reasoning, we are likely to think 
of it either by imaging the words or the mathematical 
formula by which it is expressed or by picturing some 
concrete instance in which its application is clearly shown, 
such as a pitcher of ice water with drops of moisture on 
its sides. In applying the truth to new situations we must 
observe or image the situation and see whether it belongs 
to the class covered by the general principle. In doing 
this the mind may be occupied chiefly with symbols and 
meanings, or there may be much representation of con- 
crete experiences, or the typical instance from which the 
general truth was drawn may be pictured. For instance, 
the grass may be imaged as becoming wet when the sun 
goes down and the air becomes cooler. Highly trained 
thinkers are more likely in both inductive and deductive 
reasoning to hc.ve their minds occupied chiefly with sym- 
bols and the similarities and relations for which they stand. 
There is no clear distinction in the ordinary thinking 
of most people between induction and deduction. A situa- 
tion that seems to be similar to others that have been 
experienced calls forth a representation of the results that 
are to be expected. If there is any doubt about the matter, 
the situation is examined more closely and compared with 
images of other situations that seem to have been similar, 
and a conclusion is reached as to what will happen, with- 
out any distinct formulation of a general truth applicable 
to all situations like this one. In other words, there is 

[76] 



REASONING AND IMAGINATION 

a great deal of reasoning from particular to particular in 
which memory, habit, and concrete imagery play the promi- 
nent parts, while consciousness of general truths which 
may be expressed in the form of symbols is vague and 
inexact. 

Most people expect the reddest apple to be the best 
flavored, although they have never thought of the exact 
relation between color and taste. The housewife who has 
been cheated by one peddler may image the experience 
and refuse to trade with the next, although she has never 
made any definite induction as to what classes of persons 
are likely to be dishonest. 

EXERCISES 

1. Notice and report the part that images play in your own think- 
ing and reasoning in specific cases and discuss the advantages and 
disadvantages of using concrete images in greater or less detail. 

2. Study two such contrasting types of oratory as Burke's 
speeches and Talmage's sermons and note the part that imagery 
plays in each case and their relative effectiveness for popular appeal. 

3. Reason either inductively or deductively regarding the usual 
relation between loss of sleep and good nature, then notice the part 
that concrete images play in such reasoning or report the part that 
imagery played in some development lesson or argument you have 
heard. 



[77] 



PART II 
THE IMAGINATIVE LIFE OF CHILDREN 



CHAPTER IX 

FACTORS INVOLVED IN THE EARLY DEVELOP- 
MENT OF IMAGINATION 

The beginnings of imagination. The first mental 
images develop in a child's mind through the habitual 
association of sensations. When a child a few months 
old turns to look for the source of a sound, it is probable 
that if the sound is a familiar one he has some sort of 
image of what he will see. In a similar way the child 
who has brought a certain object to his mouth a number 
of times has an anticipatory image of the sensation he 
is to experience. When this anticipation is verified he 
may be said to recognize or perceive, and his disappoint- 
ment, if the expected sensation does not come, may also be 
interpreted as indicating an image of what was expected. 
For instance, a child who often put the smooth leather 
of his shoe to his mouth seemed disappointed and dis- 
pleased when he brought a chamois-skin bootee in contact 
with his lips. 

The enjoyment derived from playing peek-a-boo is 
probably due in part to the confirmation of an anticipatory 
image by the expected sensation. If a child shows knowl- 
edge of an object when he is receiving no sensation from 
it, there is still better evidence of the existence of an 
image, as when a child reaches for something which he 
has dropped but cannot see or for something which is 
in its customary place yet is not in sight. If an object 

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IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

has been seen only once in a certain place, the promi- 
nence and permanency of an image is still more clearly 
indicated. For instance, a boy a little over a year old 
who had seen a persimmon placed on a shelf made signs 
the next day indicating his desire for the fruit, although he 
could see only the shelf upon which it had been placed. 

In the early development of imagery an interval be- 
tween the sensation suggesting the presence of an object 
and the sensation given by the object is favorable to the 
formation of an image of it. When two or more sensa- 
tions always occur in immediate succession there is little 
opportunity for forming images, and the perceptions are 
largely a matter of habit involving little more than the 
tendency to make the right motion in response to the 
sensation being received. 

Language and images. The formation of images is 
greatly helped by receiving sensations which are associated 
with an object in the absence of that object and when all 
the surroundings are different from those in which it is 
usually perceived. Sounds, especially words, are the most 
effective means of calling up images of things that are 
not present. If a child has seen a dog and heard it bark 
and later, perhaps when in the house, hears it again, he 
is likely to show interest and doubtless has some sort of 
visual image of the animal and its movements. In a simi- 
lar way, if a child sees a horse and pats it while someone 
repeatedly speaks the word "horse," he is likely when- 
ever he hears that word to form a visual image of the 
horse and of the sensations he experienced in touching 
it. The immediate response to a word by some kind of 
movement associated with it, such as waving good-by or 
playing pat-a-cake in response to a suggestion, is not as 

[82] 



EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGINATION 

likely to be accompanied by images as are words sug- 
gesting objects. Words are the most effective means of 
freeing objects from their immediate surroundings and 
thus developing images that are independent of any par- 
ticular place or associated object. 

If it were not for words, associations of time and place 
would be much more limited than they are. Words bring 
images of objects into the mind in places where they have 
never been seen and after considerable intervals of time, 
and thus varied associations of time and place are formed. 
It is true that when a word is spoken the child forms an 
image not only of the object named but of the things and 
events associated with it at some particular time. But if 
the object has been seen under varying conditions, brought 
to mind in various circumstances and mentally associated 
with things with which there has been no experience at 
the same time and place, the tendency is for the image 
of the object to suggest less definitely particular associates. 
In other words, the image becomes freer and consequently 
does not represent such distinct memories. 

Although images develop rapidly in response to words, 
yet their definiteness and the possibility of their being 
aroused by indirect means are very much increased by 
the child's own use of words. He must have some sort 
of idea or image when he speaks the name of an object 
that is not present and manifests a desire for it. We may 
say that the development of constructive imagination is 
indicated by the way in which the child puts words to- 
gether in forming sentences. At first he uses only one 
or two words to suggest the thought that he has in mind, 
but later he uses words corresponding to the object and 
indicating its special appearance, where it is, what it docs 

[83] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

or is used for, in an order which suggests a completed 
picture of a whole scene or event. Such a use of con- 
structive imagination is, of course, prepared for by hear- 
ing and understanding sentences spoken by others. To 
understand a request such as "Go into the dining room 
and bring me a spoon from the table," the child must 
construct the scene and the movements to be made. In 
a similar way he begins to use his constructive imagina- 
tion when he shows an interest in stories which reproduce 
events in which he has participated. 

Tendency to animism. Nearly all children show a tend- 
ency at an early age to note the resemblances of objects 
to living things and to treat them as if they were alive 
and had the characteristics of people. The most universal 
manifestation of this tendency is shown in the way in 
which toys resembling persons and animals are used. 
Their general appearance suggests images of objects that 
move, eat, and feel ; hence it is not strange that they 
should be treated as if they were alive. Flowers and 
trees often move in the wind in ways similar to those of 
persons or animals, and this brings to the child's mind 
images of the characteristics of living things which are 
then readily associated with the trees or flowers. Besides 
this, flowers, sticks, stones, etc. may resemble in appear- 
ance a face or some prominent part of the human body, 
such as an eye or mouth, and this is sufficient to make 
the child regard them as being like people. 

The child who has experienced certain feelings as a 
result of movements of objects, and in connection with 
his own handling of them, learns to infer that other peo- 
ple under similar circumstances have the same feelings. 
It is only a slight extension of this tendency which causes 

[84] 



EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGINATION 

children to ascribe feelings like those of human beings 
to all sorts of things, animate and inanimate. A child 
may treat a stick or a stone which has displeased him 
in much the same way as he would a companion, or if 
he is of a sympathetic nature, he may, as some children 
do, pity the wood that is put in the fire or the pebble 
which must stay always in one place. This tendency to 
animism, so prominent in children, is a strong stimulus to 
the imagination and has had a large part in the develop- 
ment of the myths, legends, superstitions, and religions 
of various peoples. 

Imitation aiid imagination. Children less than a year 
old usually begin to imitate sounds and movements. These 
more or less complete reproductions indicate and help to 
develop images of movements and ideas of feelings asso- 
ciated with various objects and acts. When imitation is 
spontaneous and immediate it is occasioned by sensations 
rather than by images, but when a child seems to repro- 
duce voluntarily a sound or a movement, some time after 
it has been heard or seen, he must be guided by some 
sort of image, and this image doubtless becomes more 
definite as he tries again and again to reproduce what 
he has perceived. 

Further development of images and constructive imag- 
ination appears in dramatic imitations, when the child 
reproduces not a single scene or movement but a series 
of events which occurred at different times and places. 
In such cases other objects and persons than those actually 
observed in the original experience may take part in the 
performance, and some of the acts are only partially per- 
formed or are perhaps omitted altogether. The child 
reproduces the experience of going to ride in a carriage 

[85] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

or a car, or of witnessing a fire, or of going to a circus 
by using furniture or playthings to represent the objects 
concerned, while he himself, perhaps with the aid of his 
companions, proceeds to supply the dramatic action by 
flourishing a whip, shouting to the imaginary horse, clang- 
ing a gong, or prancing like a circus pony. By such 
dramatic imitations the child develops clearer images and 
gains a considerable power of control over them, which 
enables him not only to reproduce incidents which he 
has observed but also to construct more completely those 
which have been described to him. It is interesting to 
note that in connection with all the early playful exercise 
of the imagination the child is controlling his movements 
and manipulating objects to represent imaginary things. 
Undoubtedly the early power of controlling images is the 
result of thus regulating his own movements in shifting 
objects which symbolize to some extent his imaginings. 

Reminiscence and anticipation. At about three years 
of age, when a child begins to use his creative imagina- 
tion, he often shows also a marked tendency to recall 
former experiences. He delights in relating incidents 
that occurred several months earlier and can frequently 
give many details indicating a fairly definite and accurate 
imagery. These reminiscences of past experiences serve 
as a basis for imaging those that are expected in the future. 
Memories of what he did last summer or last winter or 
at the seashore start the child to picturing what he may 
do and what may happen when those seasons come again 
or those places are once more visited. Just as in the 
early use of the creative imagination real objects serve 
as a stimulus to pretending that they are different from 
what they really are, so do memories of past experiences 

[86] 



EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGINATION 

serve as a basis for imagining future episodes similar in 
general character but differing in various and agreeable 
ways. Moreover, just as the activity of the imagination 
is contrasted with, and to some extent opposed by, the 
actual sensations given by objects, so when a child again 
has experiences similar to those he remembers, he modi- 
fies his anticipatory imagery of the future and limits it 
more closely to actual facts or to the possibilities of the 
case. At the same time variations in his experience furnish 
a stimulus to variety in his future anticipatory imaginings. 
Imagination and the omnipotence of childhood. The 
traditional idea of omnipotence is indicated by the phrase 
"He spoke and it was so." There is no thought of means 
and effort, but the desire or the will produces that which 
has been conceived. When one considers for a moment 
it is clear that to the infant's dawning consciousness needs 
are supplied and wishes are gratified without personal 
effort. As the infant becomes hungry, food is provided ; if 
he is pricked and cries, relief is at hand. Later a bright 
object is seen, and at a gesture or a word it is placed in 
his hands. During all his time of helplessness, the child 
is really omnipotent. Much of what he wishes or wills 
comes almost instantly and without effort on his part. In 
sharp contrast with this are his experiences as he begins 
to help himself and supply his needs and desires by his 
own thought and effort. He must become acquainted 
with the world in which he lives and conform strictly to 
its laws or his wishes remain ungratified. The words 
" dress me " do not quickly result in his being properly 
dressed, but a very definite series of movements must be 
carefully made in proper order before the desired result 
is obtained and he is in a condition to gratify his next 

[87] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

desires. Only gradually is the lesson learned that we live 
in a world where everything must be paid for by planning 
and effort suitable to the occasion. A lifetime of school- 
ing is sometimes not sufficient to teach this lesson fully. 
Even when it is learned there is relief and pleasure to 
be found in daydreams in which we lapse again into our 
childhood condition, of wishes being gratified without the 
use of means. 

Is it any wonder that the child clings to this world of 
personal power in which wishes bring their own fulfill- 
ment ? Poets always dwell much in this world, while the 
most original scientists and inventors find in it possibili- 
ties which later, by regulated effort, they transform into 
actualities. Thus all through life there is contrast and 
conflict between the world of fancy in which we are omnip- 
otent and the real world where we can succeed only by 
almost slavish conformity to the laws of the universe of 
which we are a part. Yet there are at the same time recip- 
rocal influences by which law is brought into the world of 
fancy on the one hand and the present and actual changed 
into the future and the ideal on the other. Only by proper 
balance of these contrasts and relations can life be made 
both sane and ideal. Childhood can be understood and 
properly nourished into usefulness and happiness only by 
recognizing that man begins by being omnipotent in the 
world of fancy while learning the laws of the real world to 
which he must conform in order to become really power- 
ful and efficient. Children are thus alternately the most 
idealistic and the most literal of creatures, now reveling 
in fancies, now oppressed by realities and their own help- 
lessness. This divine spark of freedom and of will to be 
and to possess must not be smothered. 

[88] 



EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGINATION 

EXERCISES 

1. Report the earliest evidence of expectation on the part of 
infants that you have noticed. 

2. Report the earliest case of evidence of memory or imaging of 
an object not in sight which has been perceived only once or twice 
before. 

3. Give remarks of some small child while listening to a story 
describing the doings of himself or others which show what mental 
pictures he is forming. 

4. Report instances of the tendency to animism in small children. 

5. Describe some of the earliest dramatic imitations that you 
have observed. 

6. Give instances of reminiscence on the part of young children, 
and also of anticipatory imaging. 



[89] 



CHAPTER X 

LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION 

AS AFFECTED BY AGE. CIRCUMSTANCES, AND 

INDIVIDUALITY 

The chief factors involved, A complete history of one's 
surroundings and of his imaginative activity at various 
ages would not only be an illuminating and complete 
revelation of his character but would show clearly the 
stages of development through which he has passed. It 
would seem that a large collection of the imagings of 
children at various ages would, when classified, reveal 
general truths regarding the characteristics of imagina- 
tion and the stages of development through which chil- 
dren pass. The author has collected many instances of 
imagination and examined them with this end in view, 
but has found definite formulation of truths difficult. The 
natural and social surroundings of children, their special 
experiences, and their own individuality are such impor- 
tant factors that age differences are obscured. 

The influence of material surroundings and of special 
experiences is clearly shown in the following : 

When nine years old I was living on an island of Puget 
Sound. Our home being on the shore of the island, we girls 
found much pleasure in " beach combing.'' In fact, the low 
tides usually found us out looking for shells, starfish, and pretty 
sea mosses. At times of extreme tides we were given a broader 
beach to search and quite frequently found new specimens. 

t90] 



LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION 

I think it must have been these extreme tides which caused a 
secret wish that the water would go out of the Sound for a period 
of time long enough to search the bottom of the ocean in that 
vicinity. Many times I found myself trying to imagine what 
the scene would be in such a case. The millions of fish, sea 
plants, animals, and wrecks, also money and valuables, which 
I could picture on the ocean floor are still very plain. The most 
striking feature of this imaginary adventure, however, was the 
awful catastrophe which would result if the water should come 
back suddenly and I happened to be some distance from the 
shore. The thought of the race before the oncoming wave of 
water still revives a feeling of fear. 

A short time after we moved from the island the passenger 
boat that plied between our town and Seattle was sunk by a 
collision with another boat in a dense fog. The account of the 
disaster brought up a clear picture of the conditions that might 
have occurred during the sinking of the boat. I could see a 
few leaping from the upper decks, but most of the passengers 
seemed to be in the lower cabins and their rush for the stairs 
or doorways was most pitiful. Many broke windowpanes in an 
effort to escape, but the water rushed in with terrible force, 
causing the cabin to fill in almost no time. The boat in a very 
short time had found its way to the ocean bottom, where I again 
could see it as the water receded, and I was investigating the 
unknown depths of the sea. I was twelve years old at this time. 

The effects of social surroundings and especially the 
influence of an older and admired companion are shown 
in the following case of a five-year-old child in the same 
house with a normal student : 

Almost every morning E. puts something edible in a bag 
while I am putting up my lunch, and keeps bustling about, 
keeping up a rapid fire of exclamations such as, " My, don't we 
have to hurry for that car ! " " Never do to be late in my 

[91] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

school, will it ? " While I am making my bed she spreads hers, 
saying, " Can't go and leave our rooms looking like this, can 
we ? " She puts on her hood and coat, gathers up all the books 
she can carry, hurries with me out of the door, and says, " My 
car doesn't go the way yours does." Her mother tells me that 
after she has walked up and down in front of the house a num- 
ber of times she comes into the dining room and spends hours 
either getting her reading or spelling lessons or pretending she 
is a teacher ; always eats her lunch before she " comes home " 
from school. 

The other evening she saw the grade cards that I use in the 
training school, and immediately wanted to know what they 
were for. After explaining them I gave her some, and each day 
until she tired of it she would come and show me the marks 
the dog and cat had received. 

Individuality is prominent in the following reminis- 
cence, although the person is very suggestible and the 
imagination changes with age : 

One day when I was four years old I saw my mother look- 
ing over the garden with a troubled expression. She said, "The 
rabbits are eating up the lettuce. I am afraid we '11 have to put 
salt on their tails and catch them." The next morning I went 
to the garden with a sack of salt and caught sight of a " cotton- 
tail " eating lettuce. I ran after her shrieking, " Here, Molly 
Cottontail, salt ! salt ! salt ! " but she scampered off, and I 
was left standing there looking over the garden hedge, holding 
my salt, with tears of disappointment in my eyes. I felt that I 
must catch those rabbits, so I set about sprinkling salt on every 
weed that was high enough for a rabbit to run under, thinking 
perhaps some would fall off on their tails and they would be 
caught. I went off to the grape arbor and there fell to playing 
with my dolls, thinking that in the morning I would find scores 
of rabbits sitting in the shade of all of the weeds in the garden. 

[92] 



LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION 

They would all be pink and would lay pink eggs, and instead of 
the yearly " corn carnival," that was a very festive occasion in 
Nebraska, they would have me give a parade with my rabbits. 
We would descend from the clouds above the Methodist church, 
I sitting in a pink wagon drawn by rabbits as big as horses, 
that I had made fat by feeding them on corn cobs (a commodity 
used for fuel on account of the abundance of corn in this 
region). I would wear a pink hood, and all the rest of the 
rabbits would pull wagons of pink eggs, and at the end of the 
parade I would have a pink dog walking beside a pink cat. 

My sister, who was about eight years of age at the time I 
was five, came to me in the garden one day and said, " We 
must make a sacrifice and atone for our sins. W T e are all 
sinners." " I am, ami?" said I. " Well, I '11 break your doll, 
if you say I'm a sinner." " Now listen," she said, "you are a 
sinner and so am I, and we must sacrifice the best thing we 
have." My father had given us each a solid gold link bracelet 
with a padlock in the form of a tiny heart and a little gold key 
only a few days prior to this, and both of our minds flew to 
our bracelets. " Yes," she said, " we must sacrifice our brace- 
lets," and we went to the house and got them and returned to 
the garden. She picked out a currant bush in the most remote 
corner of the yard and said, " We will bury these forever. Dig 
a hole — now dig one for me." " Dig your own," I said, for I 
did n't care much about the whole proposition, anyhow. We 
buried them, and she said a prayer over them. Next she said, 
" Now shut your eyes and walk fifty steps before you open 
them." We both did so and when we opened them, for the 
life of us we could n't tell which bush we had buried the brace- 
lets under. "If you look for that bracelet," she told me, "every 
gooseberry in the garden will turn into a stone, and every robin 
will die this winter because they haven't anything to eat." 

I imagined the robins would lose their toes, wings, and beaks 
if they didn't have gooseberries, and finally they would lose 
their feathers and turn into fishes. The next day I wanted my 

[93] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

bracelet and hunted for it. So did she, and we hunted for over 
a month but never found them. 

We had a bed of tansy in the yard, and everyone knows that 
ants won't go near tansy. I imagined that if my mother would 
let me go away for a day or two I could lay rows of tansy 
around the world, and all of the ants would jump into the ocean. 
I began by fringing two sides of our yard with it and soon got 
tired of the proposition. I decided that since the ants bothered 
our neighbors as much as they did us, that they could help, too, 
if we were to accomplish the deed. 

We had a big pine tree in the yard, that moaned and sighed 
at night. Many is the box of headache pills that I buried at 
the foot of this tree to relieve it of its pain. 

When I was six we were going to move to Wisconsin, and 
I imagined some very definite things about the appearance 
of the place in which we were to live. I imagined it would 
be a big yellow house on the edge of the forest, and that each 
day I would take my dolls to a lake in the middle of the 
forest, where we could see fairies making angel-food cake in 
the hollow trunks of trees and baking it on the sand on the 
banks of the lake. 

My sister, of whom I have spoken as being about three years 
older than myself, used to tell me that I was adopted and that 
my name was Louise Smith before I came to live in her house, 
and that was the reason I didn't look like any of the family. 
It took little to convince me, for I had heard many visitors 
say, " Where does she get her big eyes from ? " " Her hair 
is not the color of anyone else's in the family." " She doesn't 
act like either her brother or sister," etc. I imagined that I 
had been the child of very wealthy parents, and that one day 
when my mother was shopping I had gone for a long ride by 
myself. I had ridden so far that I could n't find my way home. 
I believed this adopted story until I was fully twelve years 
of age, and when in a melancholy mood I would cry and 
beg my mother to tell me who my real mother was. Then 

[94] 



LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION 

I began to show a marked resemblance to my brother, so my 
convictions were slowly shattered. 

When I was about twelve years old I got an idea that I 
wanted to go to boarding school. We were living in Denver, 
and I sent for every catalogue of a boarding school that I could 
find in magazine advertisements. I daydreamed for months 
over the idea and made up my mind that sometime, when I 
should inherit the money to which I was to fall heir, I would 
send all the girls to boarding school who wanted to go. I would 
have a big summer house for them to visit in Vermont in the 
summer, because it was too far back to Denver ; I would have 
one girl become an artist, one a pianist, one a domestic-science 
teacher, another an actress, and the rest should all get married 
and name their children after me. 

At about this time my father was in the theater business. I 
went to the theater often and came home determined to be a 
great actress. I set up a row of candlesticks in the attic for the 
footlights and put on all the old finery of my grandmother 
that was kept in an old walnut chest in a dark corner of the 
attic. I swept across my improvised stage with all the dignity 
of an empress. I talked continually to my gatekeeper, gener- 
ally a pile of blankets near the door, and explained how I should 
have him shot at dawn. I would have a dagger concealed, and 
it was generally a pie knife with a black walnut handle. I 
imagined that this had been given me as I entered the prison 
gate by a faithful slave of my husband, who was sitting in the 
castle bemoaning the loss of his wife. 

About this time (twelve years of age) I was studying Africa 
in geography, and one morning I got up and told of a wonder- 
ful dream I had had of a trip through that country. My father 
thought it was so remarkable that he said it was worth printing. 
I immediately began to plan my coming career as an authoress, 
and wondered how soon I could get money enough saved to 
start sending girls to school. My nurse had always tried to 
make me sleep on my right side so I wouldn't dream, and 

[95] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

whenever I wanted a good dream I would wait until she had 
left the room at night and then lie on my back. I thought per- 
haps I could sleep on my back at night and would dream more 
and perhaps could then write a book about once a week. 

Characteristics of imagination at different ages. From 
a large number of papers describing the imaginative activi- 
ties of children the following are taken almost at random 
to give a bird's-eye view of the field of imagination at 
various levels from two to sixteen. At two and three 
there are imaginative imitations of making pies and candy, 
bathing children, nursing sick dolls, acting as huckster, 
groceryman, and jitney driver, telephoning, and playing 
on the piano. There are also many instances of imaginary 
companions. 

At ages four, five, and six, besides many of the above 
activities, there are tea parties ; acting out the stories of 
Uncle Remus, "Three Bears," etc.; planting candy and 
money, hoping for an increase ; playing conductor of a 
car ; playing church and Sunday school ; making calls ; 
seeing angels in the clouds, goblins, giants, and all sorts 
of wild animals in the dark, and shooting bears and lions 
in the daytime ; making up little stories and, in several 
instances, playing with imaginary relatives. 

For the ages from seven to eleven there are instances 
of impersonating tree dwellers, an Indian, a fairy prin- 
cess and various characters in books; of having tea par- 
ties in proper form ; teaching school and using school 
materials ; telling fairy stories ; dramatizing a funeral ; 
thinking of self as adopted child ; going on various 
voyages as captain ; making a trip to Alaska ; enacting 
the battle of Manila ; dressing and acting the part of 
grown-ups ; telling bigger stories than others have told ; 

[96] 



LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION 

being afraid of bears in the woods and of ghosts at 
night ; playing house with an imaginary husband. 

In the next period, twelve to sixteen, we have fear of 
dropping baby ; fear of white slavers ; daydreams of life 
in England with real and imaginary family and friends, 
also as a school teacher ; imagining stories like those 
read ; writing poetry ; daydreams of a magic typewriter 
that could be made to give information or anything else 
desired ; making up continued stories ; imitation of sleight 
of hand and imaginary taking part in a game of football ; 
visions of life in a new place, induced by letters of a 
former teacher ; imaginary experiences as a sailor ; dream- 
ing of self as a fine lady, later with many lovers ; pictur- 
ing self as nurse taking full charge of injured persons 
in an imaginary auto accident. 

From such a view of the imagination at various ages 
we conclude that in the early years it is imitative and play- 
ful. The influence of the immediate environment is also 
very marked in the imitation of persons, processes, and 
occupations. Children are continually playing that things 
and persons are different from what they are and striving 
to give reality to their mental representations by appro- 
priate movements either with or without objects to repre- 
sent the things or people involved. They delight also in 
taking the character of another person or animal, and 
imaginary companions are especially common. At the 
same time they ascribe personality to flowers, trees, and 
even to stones. Food and fear instincts are prominent 
stimuli to the imagination. 

In the period from six to twelve, imitations of social 
forms are numerous. The chief stimulus to the imagina- 
tion is not provided by the surroundings but by what is 

[97] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

heard of distant places and by stories ; yet environing ma- 
terials are utilized in making the representations. Objects 
and imitative acting are still used to give reality, but not 
so much as formerly, while expression through language 
is much more prominent. Fear still has a considerable 
place, while curiosity stimulated by the distant and the 
mysterious often leads to the filling in of details by the 
imagination. Much playful imitation of adult activities 
is shown. 

After twelve, objects are used hardly at all as assistants 
to the imagination, and dramatic action is less common. 
There is more serious imitation of adults and adult activi- 
ties. Fear is now of burglars rather than of bears, and 
frequently takes the form of social fear, or bashfulness. 
The future rather than the present is at this time the 
basis of imaginative construction, and the scenes are often 
laid in distant places. The sex instinct and the aesthetic 
impulse, either one or both, now have a prominent place 
in the imagination. 

Periods of imaginative development. There is no sharp 
break in the development of the imagination, and the 
changes already indicated are more or less on the surface. 
There are deeper processes of adjustment of the mind to 
the universe in which it dwells. The prominent phases 
of these integrations and readjustments are indicated in 
what follows and serve as a means of distinguishing the 
stages of development of the imagination. 

After children have gained the power to produce and 
combine images they frequently revel in a playful use of 
the imagination, in which things are given whatever quali- 
ties are most pleasing and brought into whatever relation 
is most agreeable. The child thus makes the world into 

[98] 



LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION 

what he wishes it to be at the moment, but during all his 
active dealing with things he is himself becoming im- 
pressed with the permanent character of the objects with 
which he deals. He learns something of the laws of the 
world in which he lives, and which he cannot change, in 
contrast with the imaginary kingdom over which he has 
almost complete control. Only as he gains knowledge of 
things as they are can he direct his imaginative activity in 
representing desirable conditions as brought about through 
possible means. 

At this stage he is generally introduced through stories 
and the reminiscences of elders to a distant world differ- 
ing from that immediately surrounding him. He learns 
of strange objects and unfamiliar events governed by laws 
new to him. At about the same time he is also made 
acquainted with the realm of fairy stories, in which wishes 
have much the same place as in his earlier playful fancies. 
For a time the world revealed by accounts of distant 
places and times and the one presented by the fairy story 
are enjoyed as a pleasing contrast to the prosaic present 
and are not clearly differentiated from each other. Later 
the child distinguishes between these two realms, just as 
he earlier did between the realities of sense and his play 
fancies. He wants to know whether stories are true, that 
is, in accordance with the laws of the universe, or are 
merely creations of fancy and fairyland. 

Interest is then usually centered for several years upon 
history and geography, and the child learns much regard- 
ing the different parts of the earth and the succession of 
events leading to present-day civilization. The wish and 
the play elements at this time demand stories of adven- 
ture which depict a more rapid succession of exciting inci- 

[99] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

dents than is supplied by daily life or ordinary geography 
and history study. 

With the dawning of adolescence, and the emergence 
of fresh instincts, and new social, aesthetic, and moral 
interests the imagination is stimulated to greater activity. 
At this time the wish of the fairy story has almost no 
place, but the most desirable of all that is possible in the 
real world is chosen for attainment, and the imagination, 
directed by what is known of the laws of reality, is exer- 
cised in representing the means of gaining such ends. In 
this period of idealism the wish predominates over the 
probable, but is not directly opposed to what is conceived 
as possible. The problem for the youth and the man is 
that of finding means of harmonizing his desires with the 
actual possibilities of life as presented to him, taking into 
account his individual capacities and opportunities. The 
imagination is continually exploring the future, while the 
reason decides as to ends and directs in the choice of 
means of attaining them. 

The period from three to six is preeminently the time 
in which free play of the imagination is contrasted with 
fixed sensory experiences of the immediate environment. 
From six to twelve the imagination is occupied with con- 
structing the distant world of reality and perhaps reveling 
in a fairyland where wishes and fancy play a large part. 
From twelve to maturity is the period of adventure, 
romance, and idealism in which the real world is the 
theater of the imagination, but the desirable is selected 
and action is speeded up and intensified. 

The chapters that follow discuss and illustrate some of 
the chief features of the imaginative activities of these 
periods. 

[100] 



LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION 

EXERCISES 

1. Illustrate the influence of environment on both constructive 
and creative imagination. 

2. Describe the characteristics of your own imagination at differ- 
ent periods. 

3. What characteristics of your imagination have been constantly 
present at all ages ? 

4. To what extent have your images been replaced by word sym- 
bols and your plans made entirely in accord with facts and reason 
uninfluenced by fancies and desires? 



[K»] 



CHAPTER XI 
THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 

Playing with images. When a child gains the power 
to form vivid images and realizes that they may be modi- 
fied and combined in various ways, a new world of enjoy- 
ment is open to him. He plays with images as he plays 
with toys. The world of reality is not always to his taste 
and he cannot do much in the way of changing it, but 
he may choose from his stock of mental pictures those 
that are agreeable and change and combine them at pleas- 
ure. They do not maintain a fixed form like real objects, 
nor do they refuse to obey his wishes as people often do. 
This activity of the creative imagination usually becomes 
prominent between three and five and continues in vary- 
ing degrees, according to individuality and the character 
of the social environment, even into adult life. 

This play of the imagination begins in dramatic imita- 
tion, in which things are supposed to be different from 
what they really are and where the child modifies the 
original experience to suit his own pleasure. It is shown 
in his noting of fancied resemblances and in his tendency 
to animism. He pictures objects different from any that 
he has known and often tells of little experiences that are 
imaginary. Sometimes he seizes upon poetical and musi- 
cal phrases and combines them into a little song which 
he enjoys repeating. Usually he is more interested in the 
character of the sounds than in the meanings associated 
with the words. 

[102] 



THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 

The freedom with which he invents imaginary experi- 
ences and describes them depends upon his social environ- 
ment. If there is someone who is interested and amused 
he is stimulated to go on weaving new fancies. If he is 
rudely laughed at or harshly reproved he may give little 
intimation of his imaginative life, but in a large propor- 
tion of cases he will continue to create for himself experi- 
ences more enjoyable than those supplied by the real world 
in which he lives. 

The following incident told of a four-year-old boy is a 
good illustration of playing with images and giving reality 
to the performance by means of appropriate movements: 

One morning my sister softly called me and tiptoed out on 
the porch, which is five or six feet higher than the yard. With 
a motion for silence she pointed out Donald. He was going 
through apparently aimless motions. But as I watched I saw 
that he was tying something around a post, saying as he did 
so, " Now pony, don't you pull and break that rope." Then 
swinging his arms and with an important air he marched up 
to the corner of a large box and asked for his mail, meanwhile 
keeping careful watch of his impatient steed. Putting his mail 
into his pocket and remarking on the weather to an imaginary 
postmaster, he strode to his horse, went through all the neces- 
sary motions of untying and throwing rein over his horse's 
head, jumped into his saddle, and was off, galloping through 
the gate and down the road, all of this without even the custom- 
ary stick or string with which most children play horse. A day 
or two later a friend called, bringing a little boy of six. The 
other children had gone to the store with their father and 
Donald was playing outside ; so we sent George to find him. 
We presently heard voices under the window and, lifting the 
sash a little way, I listened. Don was telling George to go in 
the house and get his harness which was hanging on a certain 

[ I03] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

doorknob. George came in fully expecting to find a harness of 
some kind, but not even a string was to be seen. He went 
back, saying that it was n't there. Don came in and, in a very 
businesslike manner, walked up to the doorknob, lifted the 
harness off, and walked out, George following. Of course 
George couldn't understand what Don was doing, but Don 
didn't know that. He began to harness his team of mules, 
talking to them, calling them by name, — Liz and Sue, Pete 
and Punch, etc., — telling George to look out or he would get 
his head kicked off. Finally he threw the lines to George, tell- 
ing him to hold the team while he opened the gate. It was too 
much for George, who disgustedly turned away, telling Don he 
was crazy, and came into the house. Donald merely looked 
after him in surprise, glanced up and saw me, smiled in a shy 
way he had, picked up his lines, and drove his team through 
the gate and away. 

Influences affecting creative activity. The pleasure that 
the child derives from dramatic imitations, in which inci- 
dents are reproduced at will in entirely new settings, to- 
gether with his experience in ascribing to objects, animate 
and inanimate, characteristics and feelings which he has 
observed in persons, prepares the way for the creative 
imagination and stimulates it to activity. In dramatizing an 
event the child reproduces only the parts which are most 
interesting to him, and presently he may add or substitute 
objects or incidents not in the original which give a more 
pleasing effect. Thus does the creative imagination become 
active, and many children derive more pleasure from its 
exercise than from most of their real experiences. 

The child's desires are strong, and at first he knows 
little of the fixed character of things and the laws gov- 
erning them, so he often modifies them in fancy according 
to his pleasure. A boy of six planted some melon seeds 

[104] 



THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 

which never came up. Often, when going to visit the 
spot, he pictured so vividly the vine as grown and with 
large melons that he actually had some expectation of 
finding it true and was disappointed to see only the 
bare ground. When a child imagines things and persons 
as being and doing what he wishes, but without having 
any actual experience with them, there is no check upon 
the imagination and he may create a world of his own 
which is to him a vivid reality. One young woman writes : 

Once I remember looking up into the clouds and seeing 
a towered city there shining in the sun. I imagined that it was 
real and sometimes looked for it afterward. Another time I 
imagined that I was an angel, and ran about flapping my hands 
and feeling very ethereal. Remembering that angels conducted 
souls to heaven, I ran to my mother and inquired, "Are you 
dead ? " She did not understand my play and began to talk 
seriously to me, whereupon I dropped my celestial role and ran 
away to hide behind the clothes basket in the laundry. 

Even in the period of playful imagining, when desire 
and fancy have most influence, there is a strong tendency 
to complete and make vivid every idea suggested, whether 
the result is agreeable or not. Only the child with initia- 
tive and will power invents a world according to his de- 
sires. Others merely construct a more definite world of 
whatever type is suggested to them. In response to this 
tendency every person mentioned is imaged in greater or 
less detail. For example, one young lady reports that 
she even imaged in detail the "farmer" when playing 
" Farmer in the Dell." Imaginary beings such as the 
sandman, fairies, Santa Claus, are definitely imaged even 
when pictures of them have not been seen. One child 
imaged the sandman thus : "I thought that every night 

[105] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

after I had gone to bed a very large man with a bag of 
sand on his shoulder flew into my room and sprinkled 
sand over my head, which put me to sleep." 

Another says : " I imagined the sandman going along 
the beach filling his bag with sand and then about dusk 
coming around to all the houses and sprinkling sand over 
us." Doubtless the writer was familiar with the beach 
and the habits of hucksters, and this knowledge was re- 
flected in the imagery produced by talk of the sandman. 
One child imagined a picture so vividly that she could 
scarcely realize that it had not been a reality, and many 
children of four to seven tell wonderful imaginary tales 
which they sometimes actually believe. This should not 
be regarded as lying, but children should be led to dis- 
tinguish clearly between the imaginary and the real. 

The fact that many children do construct a literal 
Santa Claus or sandman emphasizes the importance of 
the caution that such personages should be presented to 
children in a playful manner. This helps to prevent a 
mythical personage from becoming too real in the child's 
mind. Thus he may pass insensibly from the first con- 
crete representations into an appreciation of the more 
abstract spirit or force symbolized. That children are 
sometimes severely shocked when they find Santa Claus 
is not real is not due so much to the fact they have been 
told stories about him as it is to the literal and serious 
manner in which he has been described. 

Present objects and events as well as past experiences 
are often woven into imagery, as when a little girl thought 
that a large house near her home was a fairy palace, and 
another thought she saw Heaven through the clouds. This 
is also shown in the case of the little girl who said that 

[106] 



THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 

thunder was God knocking on the floor of Heaven, and 
of another who thought that the Sunday-school superin- 
tendent was God, since he was to her the principal 
personage in " God's house." 

Besides this general tendency to weave into fancy what- 
ever knowledge or experience one possesses, there are 
two important factors involved in imagination, namely, a 
lack of definiteness in the stimulating object or idea and 
an emotional interest of some kind impelling one to 
mental activity along the line suggested. Cloud forms 
and the flames of an open fire have always inspired the 
imagination. We see " castles in Spain," characters in 
song and story, visions of the past and future, according 
to our surroundings, previous experience, and mood. 
Mysterious actions and words are effective stimuli to the 
imagination of many persons. Music and works of art, 
especially pictures which are vague in detail, poems or 
stories which suggest rather than express situations and 
emotions, may appeal strongly to the imaginative faculty. 

In no case will any of these stimuli produce much 
activity of the imagination unless they arouse some feel- 
ing. On the other hand, if emotion of any kind has 
already been stirred, almost any indefinite stimulus may 
result in great activity of the imagination along the lines 
suggested by that emotion. Indefinite shapes or unrecog- 
nized sounds may fill the mind of a timid child with pic- 
tures of bears and wolves ready to attack him or of a 
"black man," "rag pickers," or " gypsies " waiting to 
carry him off. 

In all such cases the child has little or no control of 
his imagination and lacks knowledge with which to com- 
bat his fears. The images come without his volition, and 

[107] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

the distressing scene proceeds in spite of any effort he 
may make to end it. The child lying helpless in the dark, 
with fear-inspiring images aroused by indefinite stimuli, 
is in quite a different situation from the boy in daylight, 
shouldering his gun to shoot lions that his eyes tell him 
are not there. Older children and adults may gain a con- 
trol of imagery somewhat independent of physical circum- 
stances, but to the small child this is impossible ; rather, 
in his case, imagination possesses and controls him. 

Imaginary companions. From earliest infancy people are 
the most interesting things in a child's environment. It 
is not strange, therefore, that they should occupy a promi- 
nent place in his mental operations and creations. Not 
only may he endow all the objects of nature with the 
characteristics of human beings, and imagine the per- 
sonalities of people, including his own, as changed, but 
he creates new characters to serve his purposes. In his 
dramatic play he takes great pleasure in acting as if he 
were a dog, a bird, a horse, an Indian, a policeman, a 
circus man, or a general. When he assumes another per- 
sonality than his own he not only acts in the way that 
seems to him appropriate but he desires other people to 
treat him in a manner befitting the character. He fre- 
quently has very definite ideas of what is necessary to the 
part and may go to a great deal of trouble in order that 
everything may be carried out in just the right way. 

This is often one of the peculiar features of creative 
imagining even when it is supposed to have free play. 
The child is dealing with things over which he has con- 
trol, and yet he seems to feel bound by some law to which 
his imaginative creations must conform. In children of 
an artistic and poetic temperament beauty, as in the case 

[108] 



THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 

of adult artists, may be the controlling law, but in a large 
proportion of cases the law to which their imagery must 
conform is based upon some kind of similarity or analogy 
to what obtains in the real world as they know it. 

In playing with dolls the child often gives a definite 
individuality to each one and then requires that it shall 
maintain those characteristics. One little girl carried this 
individualization so far that when one of the dolls with 
which she was carrying on an imaginary conversation 
replied just as she had planned for it to reply she was 
displeased, because she wanted that one to be more 
independent and original. 

In playing with real things which he has endowed with 
imaginary characteristics the child is rarely if ever deceived 
into believing that they actually have these characteristics. 
His senses contradict his images, so that the thing as it 
is contrasts with what he imagines it to be ; but by acting 
as if it were the thing he imagines it, and getting other 
people to act in the same way, he is able to produce a 
semblance of reality which is no less pleasing because he 
is conscious of the fact that he himself has supplied the 
characteristics which it does not really possess. 

Many children, during the age of make-believe, not 
only give personality to objects, and modify in imagina- 
tion the characteristics of individuals, but they create new 
personalities. To such creations the name " imaginary 
companions " has been given. It was formerly thought 
that only children who had few or no real playfellows 
ever indulged in such fancies, but inquiry reveals the 
fact that a great many adults remember having had such 
companions in childhood, and since it has been demon- 
strated that children who at three or four talk a great 

[109] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

deal about their imaginary playmates may be utterly unable 
to remember a few years later that they ever had any such 
intimates, it would probably not be an overestimate to say 
that at least three fourths of all children have had, at some 
time, one or more imaginary companions. 

Not always are these companions wholly imaginary ; 
often the fictitious person is represented by some real 
object and occasionally by an animal, such as a cat or a 
pony. In other instances there is nothing to represent 
the absent person who is not purely imaginary, but some 
one known or heard of. Sometimes it is found that the 
casual mention of some individual has led the child to 
construct an ideal personality suggested by the remark 
and to adopt him as a playfellow. 

Again, he may be a character in the child's dramatic 
representation, such as a pupil or a policeman, but not 
endowed with individuality. Sometimes the imaginary 
playmate is not a person but a pet, such as a dog or a 
horse. Oftentimes the desire for a brother or sister leads 
to the creation of an imaginary one. A little girl of four 
who delighted in telling of the deeds of her imaginary 
brother one day looked very sad as she told that her 
brother was very, very sick. " We must take him to the 
hospital. He has appendicitis." Later she had a little 
party in celebration of his home-coming. The first of the 
following accounts was given by a little girl ten years old : 

I have had two imaginary friends. I was about eight years 
old. I had them for my pupils when playing school, and my 
children when playing house. One of my imaginary friends 
was a little girl named Marion. The other was a boy named 
George. I do not have make-believe friends now. I am too 
old to have them. 

[no] 



THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 

M., a little boy of three years, had an imaginary friend, 
Harbell. When M. had his bath he made believe Harbell was 
with him, and he would splash water all over him. He greatly 
enjoyed this friend and played with him until he was five years 
old. No one knew where he heard the name " Harbell." 

One day little E., aged three, came into her mother's sewing 
room. Going up to her mother, she said, in a very shy way, 
" Mother, I have a little new friend, Bessie, and here she is." 
The mother greeted the little new friend, saying, " How do you 
do, Bessie. I am very glad to see you." There was no little 
girl present. E. played with this imaginary friend until she was 
five years old. 

A little girl of three has an imaginary friend, " Twinkles." 
One day her grandfather came into the living room and went 
to sit down in the comfortable chair, when the little girl cried, 
" O, grandfather ! don't sit there, Twinkles is sitting there." 

Although children who are alone a great deal may feel 
the need of such companions more than others, yet chil- 
dren with many playmates may get much pleasure from 
them. The imaginary companion is much more tractable 
than real playmates and is especially appreciated after 
a real companion has proved uncongenial or contrary. 
Sometimes two or more children may join in playing with 
an imaginary companion. Often, however, if they are of 
about the same age, and almost equally imaginative, they 
cannot agree upon the characteristics and details of be- 
havior of the unseen playmate. In such cases if they 
can take some real object and give it a personality which 
it is supposed to maintain day after day, then this imag- 
inary companion may be accepted and enjoyed by both. 
Where one child has an imaginary companion, and an- 
other child manifests interest in it and does not attempt 

[mi 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

to modify its characteristics, then they may play with it 
quite successfully for some time. 

In connection with imaginary companions there is not 
only a good deal of dramatic play but also the construct- 
ing of imaginary experiences. 

When a child I used my imagination most in playing house 
and school. My sister and I played together. She lived in one 
room and I in another. Another room was used for stores and 
a post office. We went to imaginary stores and bought imagi- 
nary goods. On our way to a store or the post office we often 
met imaginary people to whom we said " good morning." Our 
imaginary butcher and baker called for orders. Sometimes I 
expected company from Boston and went to the station to meet 
the visitor. All the way home we chatted. Sometimes I talked 
for myself and sometimes for her. I brought her home with 
me, gave her tea, and took her to see my sister. Then we both 
entertained her as we saw our mother entertain her guests. At 
other times we got into the hammock and swung and swung 
until we got to Boston. Then we got out and met imaginary 
friends who took us home with them. Next we went shopping. 
When our shopping expedition was over we told our friends we 
were so sorry we must go home. Then we hurried to catch 
our train which was the hammock. 

In playing school we arranged chairs just as the desks are 
arranged in school. In these chairs we had make-believe 
scholars, as we used to call them. We whipped imaginary chil- 
dren and reported them to an imaginary superintendent. Thus, 
in everything we played we used our imagination. 

Sometimes these invisible personages furnish a con- 
venient means of shifting responsibility for behavior. 

M. and L., two sisters ten and eight years old, played with 
some brownies made of paper. Every night, before the girls 
went to tea, they turned everything upside down in their doll 

[112] 



THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 

house and in their own pretty room. When their mother asked 
the reason for all the disorder, the girls said, " Oh, the brownies 
did it." They played this so much, and their play seemed so 
real, that at last all their errors and misdeeds were blamed upon 
the brownies. 

Another child has two imaginary playmates, one of whom is 
responsible for all his bad behavior, the other for his good 
conduct. 

The little girl whose companion is told of in the fol- 
lowing instance had a strong love of caricature. 

Mr. Bauban seemed from the first to be a grotesque. He 
lived in the ground, was wholly deformed, had but one eye, was 
an amusing companion rather than a lovable one, and could be 
called forth at will by stamping upon the ground. He origi- 
nated, I have thought, from a desire for ready reference in case 
of quandary. For instance, in reply to " Why did you do so ? " 
M Mr. Bauban told me to do it." " I knew it, because Mr. Bauban 
said it was so," etc. ; this while she yet lisped the words. He 
was, in a way, a defense in which she fondly hoped we would 
believe. She always seemed amused at this gnome she had 
herself called into being; it pleased her to see us puzzled by 
his impish and unaccountable ways. She would describe at 
length his menage underground, his cook, his winding passages, 
his essaying forth to market or to visit. He did not come forth 
at night. This did not occur to her, as she could not grasp the 
fact that anything went on at night. She put him safely under- 
ground herself before she went into the house for bed. 

A delightful bon mot seemed to end the existence of 
Mr. Bauban. When we went into the Boston subway, with a 
sigh of satisfaction she said, " This is where Mr. Bauban lives." 

The child enjoys, in imagination, experiences different 
from any that he has ever had, and in many cases persons 
whom he knows, perhaps more or less transformed, as well 

[>'3] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

as purely imaginary people, play a considerable part in these 
incidents. The following illustrates the peculiar fancies of 
children, especially those deprived of ordinary pleasures: 

Little E., who was a delicate child and unable to run and 
play with the other children, used to go into the living room, 
shut the door, take her kitty by the tail, and spin it round and 
round. She would make believe that the motion was a part of 
herself. It would seem so real that the motion became a part 
of her very being, and she would make her " motion self " do 
all sorts of interesting things. 

In another of her motion plays she made believe she could 
fly. She would make the " motion self " become a bird form 
which she called her " bird self," and when she could n't run 
and play with the other children, she would make believe she was 
a bird and play that the bird was active, just as the children were. 

She played with flowers, made believe they were actors and 
actresses, and had plays lasting several weeks. Sometimes she 
made believe the flower actors were people, at other times she 
kept them flower actors. This same little girl made companions 
of the trees ; sometimes they were silent friends, sometimes 
Indians, ghosts, or fairies. 

Frequently the same people appear in a series of events, 
and the result is a sort of continued story. Inquiry re- 
veals the fact that a good many people have at some time 
in their lives created such tales, and many of them con- 
tinue the practice in adult life. Doubtless some novels 
are the outcome of such imaginative early fiction, origi- 
nated without any intention of writing a story. This, 
however, is more common in the next period. 

A young woman writes : 

I often took pansies for dolls because of their human faces ; 
the rose I revered too much to play with. It was like my best 

[114] 



THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 

wax doll, dressed in her prettiest, but always sitting in state in 
a big chair, in some secluded corner where little visitors would 
not spy her out. I loved these nature dolls far better than the 
prettiest store dolls, and ascribed special psychic qualities to 
them. Violets were sturdy little ones, who enjoyed a frolic and 
could be played with. The pansy was a quick, bright flower 
child ; the rose, her grown-up sister, pretty always, charmingly 
dressed, but a quiet and sedate spectator. The hepaticas were 
delicate children, invalids and cripples to be tenderly cared for. 
They watched their livelier brothers and sisters and were enter- 
tained by stiff maiden aunts, marigolds, with long curls. The 
dahlias were colored servants ; yellow violets were mischievous, 
fun-loving boys ; sweet peas were the nurses, with cap and 
kerchief ; the morning-glories were governesses and teachers. 

EXERCISES 

1. Give illustrations of the playful imaging of children in connec- 
tion with objects. 

2. Describe in detail an instance of imaginary companionship. 

3. Give various illustrations showing what stimulates the imagina- 
tion of children of three to six and of the way in which they express 
or accompany their mental picturing. 

4. If an older person definitely asks children to imagine certain 
things and tells them what to do in connection with this mental 
picturing, are the children getting training in constructive or in 
creative imagination? 

5. If the teacher merely suggests by words or acts and encourages 
the children to represent the details, what kind of imaginative 
activity is being encouraged? 

6. Report some kindergarten exercise and discuss its value from 
the standpoint of the preceding questions. 



['■5] 



CHAPTER XII 

CONSTRUCTING THE REAL WORLD 

The period of constructive imagination. Although 
there is more or less use of the constructive imagination 
in early childhood and thenceforth into adult life, its em- 
ployment in mentally representing the real world is most 
prominent in the period from seven or eight to twelve. 
Earlier than this the imagination is more fanciful and 
playful, while later it is replaced in part by symbolic 
thinking. That constructive imagination is prominent at 
this time is due as much to social and school influences 
as to any fundamental change in the child's natural tend- 
encies. He still inclines to represent things according 
to his desires or as his emotions impel him, but experi- 
ence teaches him that it usually pays to picture things as 
they are, and nearly all his school training is in the direc- 
tion of requiring him to image in accordance with the 
teaching of adults. There is probably also a natural tend- 
ency at this time to classify and correlate his mental 
pictures. 

Comparing and constructing. A child often hears of 
persons, places, and incidents through the conversation 
of those around him and is stimulated to picture them. 
Later he perhaps has the opportunity of seeing the per- 
sons or places mentioned or of witnessing events such 
as he has heard described, and he naturally compares 
his memory images with the realities. This process is 

[116] 



CONSTRUCTING THE REAL WORLD 

continued into adult life, and imagination in this way is 
influenced more and more by the real world. 

The following is a good example of the way in which 
the distant in time and place may stimulate to the forma- 
tion of definite images : 

When I was ten years of age we planned and undertook a 
trip east to New York State. The planning was the part we 
youngsters enjoyed, as we settled in our minds just what we 
would take to eat and wear and how every part of the country 
would look, as we traced our journey on a railroad map. We 
imagined just how it would seem at grandpa's, in the little vil- 
lage, and at grandma's, on the farm. All our greetings and 
actions, we agreed, should carry out the "wild and woolly West" 
idea, so that our Eastern cousins (three and five years old) 
should know we were from a very different sort of country. We 
laid plans for horseback rides on the farm in such detailed fashion 
and with such enthusiasm that we experienced more delight 
than we could ever realize. Our greeting for old and feeble 
grandma was all planned exactly as we expected to execute it 
We even drilled on it, as we sat on the front steps talking it over. 

In listening to stories and descriptions the child under- 
stands what he hears only by comparing the objects and 
incidents mentioned with those in his own experience. 
At first the images derived from familiar surroundings 
dominate his mental construction of the objects and events 
described, and reminiscences of his own past experiences 
contribute largely to his enjoyment of stories. The child 
insists upon certain tales being repeated over and over 
until they take a form of reality in his mental life and 
become a basis for understanding other stories. 

Later the child's constructive and creative imagination 
is greatly stimulated by descriptions of objects and events 

[•17] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

which contrast sharply with those that he has experi- 
enced. This is one reason why stories of giants and 
dwarfs are so enjoyable and why fairy stories, in which 
things happen so quickly and in such marvelous ways, 
are sources of pleasure. Such stories may for a time sup- 
plant the child's interest in real life. Usually, however, 
he compares the world of every day with this imaginary 
world and, through contrast, gets a better idea of realities. 

It is not necessary, however, that stories and descrip- 
tions shall be of giants, dwarfs, and fairies in order that 
the imagination may be stimulated and impressive com- 
parisons made. The child may be told stories of his 
parents' youth amid surroundings quite different from his 
own, or he may have descriptions of foreign countries with 
their strange animals and plants, where the dress and 
customs of the people vary greatly from those familiar 
to him. Stories of history and biography also give valu- 
able material. In all these cases the child compares his 
own personal experiences with the realities of other times 
and places and constructs a picture of the real world which 
is much broader and more varied than had he depended 
on his experiences alone. In proportion as his imagina- 
tion is vivid and his constructions in accordance with de- 
scriptions does he acquire knowledge similar to that which 
may be obtained by years of travel and observation. 

Truth and fancy. Tales of giants and fairies, historical 
and geographical stories, alike open the door to a new 
realm of imagination which is contrasted with the world 
of his personal experiences. The principal difference be- 
tween these stories lies in the greater freedom of the fairy 
tale as compared with stories of real life in which events 
are governed by fixed laws. Children usually recognize 

[US] 



CONSTRUCTING THE REAL WORLD 

this difference and frequently ask whether a story is true. 
This tendency should be encouraged, and rather a sharp 
distinction should be drawn between fairy stories and those 
concerned with real things and events. One should feel 
in listening to a fairy story that he is living in a different 
world, a world of playful and enjoyable fancy. For this 
reason literal descriptions of things as they are, if used 
at all, should be chiefly by way of contrast. Thus the 
child may enjoy to the full this realm of fantasy (which 
has no laws except those of pleasure and beauty) and, at 
the same time, gain a knowledge of the world of reality 
in which there is less freedom and where natural laws 
determine the course of events. 

Myths and legends introduce the child to the story land 
of ancient peoples, and although stimulating and interest- 
ing they are sometimes confusing. Some of them are the 
fancies of those who lived in the dawn of time, while 
others represent their imperfect conceptions of the world 
about them. Such stories do, however, reveal to a more 
mature mind the world of which the ancients conceived 
as distinctly different from the well-ordered universe of 
present-day scientific thought. 

The imaginary made real. If the child pictures vividly 
and accurately the world beyond his limited horizon, as 
it is and has been, he has acquired new and more varied 
material with which his imagination may work. His 
broader knowledge of things, of people, and of the forces 
and influences back of natural phenomena and historical 
events stimulates his imagination to new activity and 
directs its constructions in harmony with the possible and 
probable. Through the medium of language and pictures 
the child's environment is immensely enlarged, and this 

[no] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

wider domain may become almost as real to him as the 
narrower one in which he has his physical being. He 
may compare his mental images of places, industries, and 
events with pictures and descriptions in much the same 
way as he formerly compared his anticipations of the sea- 
shore or of the mountains with the real experiences. With 
the knowledge that he has, he may form mental pictures 
of probable events, while the daily news reports help him 
to verify and correct the anticipatory constructions. He is 
thus enabled to participate not only in the real experi- 
ences of the immediate neighborhood but also in the 
broader life of the world as revealed in newspapers and 
magazines and in geography and history. The follow- 
ing are good examples of anticipatory constructions of 
possible events : 

I used to plan long journeys and imagine our getting ready, 
what we should do while on the journey, and what we should 
see and do after reaching our destination. I always liked to 
imagine people whom I had never seen but of whom I had 
often heard my mother tell. When I reached high school I 
began to imagine myself as a teacher. I pictured the school 
I should teach, and this varied from a consolidated school in 
the country to a small log cabin out in the Rocky Mountains. 
I pictured my brother and little sisters growing up and planned 
futures for them. I worked out beautiful plans for the house 
and farm and introduced all sorts of labor-saving devices for my 
mother. I think that all of my imaginative activity lately has 
been along this line, continually picturing the future. 

Once I was disappointed because rain prevented my going 
to R, eight miles away from my home. I had been planning to 
see a moving picture, " Desert Gold," and as a substitute I 
made up an imaginary story, in moving-picture form, about the 

[I20] 



CONSTRUCTING THE REAL WORLD 

Arizona desert. While my physical being was washing dishes 
and ironing, my mind was far away among sagebrush and 
cactus, working out my imaginary picture. I still tell stories to 
myself, especially at night, for I can think better in the dark. 
My imagination has made life much more interesting to me, 
and I hope that it will continue to do so. 

Individual construction. Although constructive imag- 
ination is directed mental activity, and a writer, speaker, 
or teacher seeks to produce the same mental pictures in 
all minds, yet such a result never follows. Descriptions 
are frequently incomplete, hence there is always an oppor- 
tunity for the reader or listener to fill out the details from 
his experience or according to his fancies. Not only do 
individual images differ but also the manner in which 
they are classified and correlated. For these reasons chil- 
dren in the same environment construct quite different 
worlds. 

This is especially marked in those who have independ- 
ence and originality. Such children, though often seem- 
ingly realistic, are intensely imaginative. They are eager 
to gain material with which their imagination may occupy 
itself and to learn the truth about things, but they wish 
to represent them in their own way. They do not want 
fanciful accounts, but desire to work out their own 
fancies in connection with the truths they have acquired. 
An extreme example of this tendency is described by 
J. K. Folsom. 1 After the period of playful imagination, 
in which spools and other objects were used to represent 
individuals, real and imaginary, he began at about eight 
years of age to make more rigid scientific classifications. 
For several years he was intensely interested in the abstract 

1 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. XXII, pp. 161-182. 

[121] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

truths of science, to which he gave reality by associating 
them with objects of his play world, now carefully classi- 
fied and interrelated in a logical way. Truth and logical 
reasons as he conceived them, rather than desire, fancy, 
or sentiment, controlled all his mental constructions. For 
several years he lived in this imaginary world, which 
was, however, constructed in accordance with the laws 
governing the real world in somewhat the same manner as 
a parable or allegory resembles reality. 

In the case of L. C. Day, 1 similar independence was 
shown. He gave expression to his imaginary experiences 
in a little paper which he published. He made much use 
of real things and events, but instead of merely picturing 
what he heard he invented incidents and thus was a sort of 
god who determined what should happen in his universe. 

" Una Mary " 2 also had a self-made world, but the 
controlling principle in her constructions was not scien- 
tific truth or personal power, but sentiment and artistic 
fancy. She invented many words to express feelings and 
situations not recognized in ordinary language. 

All children show in a greater or less degree this tend- 
ency to construct a world different from that presented 
to them by books and people. Only a few do this com- 
pletely, intentionally varying from realities. The majority 
accept the world in the main as they find it and as it is 
represented to them by others, but fill in the unsupplied 
details in their own way. The following is an instance 
of definite construction : 

When I was eleven years old I moved to the country and 
here I delighted in nature. I used to watch the birds and think 

1 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. XXI, pp. 310-320. 

2 Scribner's Magazine, 191 4. 

[122] 



CONSTRUCTING THE REAL WORLD 

how it would seem to be a bird. I could imagine a person 
changed to a bird. 

When I became older I used to imagine how the surround- 
ings about my house looked before there were any houses. I 
can see now the pine woods, and the long stretch of land with 
the apple orchard on it, and the hills in the distance. 

I have always wished to go abroad, and I used to imagine 
myself on a large steamer, sailing across the waters and visiting 
the different countries. 

Some picture in general what is described, but in the 
way that is the easiest and most pleasing to them. For 
example, one girl represented the Southern states as cov- 
ered with fruit trees, and she pictured oranges rolling on 
the streets to be picked up by anyone who wanted them. 
In other cases the imagination is more passive and pic- 
tures only in accordance with descriptions, and that per- 
haps with no great vividness. Such persons need objects, 
models, diagrams, illustrations, and dramatic representa- 
tions in order that they may vividly and completely 
construct what is described. 

This more passive use of the constructive imagination 
is favored by the extensive use of pictures in teaching 
and by stories of all kinds which give details instead of 
stimulating their independent representation. 

Definite types of images as well as forms of construc- 
tion often develop. Numbers, days of the week, or 
months of the year may be thought of as always arranged 
in certain ways. 

One child of eight personified all the numbers and 
kept that imaginative arrangement until fifteen years old. 
She had them act out dramas, a sample of which is given 
on the following page. 

[123] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

i, 2, and 3 were children; 4 was a woman, good and self- 
sacrificing; 5, a mischievous young scamp; 6, an amiable 
prince; 7, an arrant rogue; 8, a high-born, haughty lady. 
5 coaxes an innocent child to run away from home. He runs 
until he reaches 10. He stops on the way to help 6, but cannot 
get him into 12, where he wanted to go, so he drops him next 
door to 12. The designing 7 persuades 5 to help him instead 
of 6 into 12, etc. — Pedogogical Seminary, Vol. II, p. 107 

EXERCISES 

1. To what extent do you construct in detail that which is men- 
tioned either with or without complete description ? Is this tendency 
decreased with experience or is it merely regulated more completely 
in accordance with real events ? 

2. If children are asked to illustrate or dramatize a story which 
they have read, interesting examples of the way in which they con- 
struct in response to more or less complete descriptions will probably 
be obtained. 

3. If it be admitted that fanciful stories of beauty or those con- 
veying social or moral truths are valuable in training the imagination 
of children, does it follow that nature myths and others which indi- 
cate the scientific and religious ideas of the ancients are better for 
them than modern nature-study stories which are in accordance with 
present-day scientific conceptions ? Should the ancient myths be given 
at all except incidentally in contrast with present-day conceptions? 

4. Reports should be given of imaginative constructions in con- 
nection with various subjects studied. Are mistaken constructions 
due to any extent to methods of teaching? 



[124] 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE PERIOD OF DAYDREAMS 

The imagination of the adolescent. The imaginative 
activity of the adolescent differs considerably from that 
of the two earlier periods. It is less playful, less asso- 
ciated with physical action than in early childhood, richer 
in material derived from experience and reading, but with 
images generally less vivid than those formed during the 
preceding period, when the world was being constructed 
in imagination partly as it is and partly in accordance 
with individual fancy. The wish to actually experience 
what is imagined is now much stronger. To dream of 
other lands and far-away scenes and people is not enough, 
but there is a keen desire to really see them. Most young 
people long to travel and frequently spend many hours 
in imagining themselves going from place to place, hav- 
ing thrilling experiences in the countries of which they 
have heard. They are also no longer satisfied to merely 
learn of what has been and is being done, but they desire 
a share in the world's work, and this gives rise to dreams 
of social, philanthropic, or scientific achievements. His 
more subjective condition of mind leads the youth to pro- 
ject himself into the world of reality which he created in 
the preceding period and keeps him from revealing his 
imaginative activity by outward actions as he formerly did. 

This development of a more distinct inner life is partly 
the result of new instincts and feelings that come into 

[125] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

prominence at this age. These make the youth sensitive 
to a greater degree and in different ways, and as a result 
his imagination is largely controlled by new desires. 

One who has little to occupy or interest him may have 
his character weakened by excessive indulgence in imag- 
inative fancies unchecked by real experience or increasing 
knowledge of realities and unassociated with any plans 
for definite action. On the other hand, one who is over- 
worked and has no energy left for new interests may lack 
the opportunity for that imaginative picturing of what 
may be done and gained which is the chief stimulus to 
ambition. Fortunate is the youth who has plenty of work 
and something to be interested in every day of the week, 
but who has some leisure in which to do as he likes, and 
indulge in daydreams of a golden future. 

In imagination the young person may compete with 
others on the athletic field, in the classroom, and in the 
world of industry, science, art, or literature, but the imag- 
inative anticipation of what is to be done or enjoyed in 
the immediate future is checked and controlled more and 
more by new experiences. In a similar way more remote 
ambitions are modified and directed by increasing knowl- 
edge of how success has been attained by others in various 
lines of endeavor. By means of the imagination prelimi- 
nary explorations are made into the unknown, and in the 
light of present conditions, and a knowledge of what others 
have done, plans are made which, even if not carried out 
in detail at once or later, yet influence future life and 
character. The changes in objective action and the still 
greater changes in mental life which take place during 
the adolescent period are frequently very marked, and all 
the imaginative activity of this period doubtless modifies 

[126] 



THE PERIOD OF DAYDREAMS 

the future either positively or negatively, although some 
of it seems to reflect only passing whims. The following 
reminiscences are typically adolescent : 

When I was about fifteen years old I began to be very self- 
conscious and to be very particular about my personal appear- 
ance. Before this time I do not remember of ever having paid 
much attention to my looks. I also grew very sensitive and 
thought that I had a " temperament " of finer grain than that 
of other people. I wanted to be alone, where I could imagine 
how some ideal person would pity me for the lack of sympathy 
from other people, and I could not understand why my parents 
insisted on my being so much in the company of others. I very 
frequently had " crushes " on older women, my mother included. 
All the others did not last long, but the deep feeling I had so 
suddenly for my mother developed into a love and friendship 
which has never grown less. 

I was deeply interested in religion, loved to attend revival 
meetings, and was indignant when my parents refused to allow 
me to take certain pledges. 

My moods were constantly changing from the greatest hilarity 
to the deepest gloom. I was ashamed of myself for this when 
I saw how even tempered older people were, as a rule, but I was 
powerless to restrain my own impulses. At times I would feel 
so ashamed of myself for being so sensitive that I would put 
myself as much as possible with other people, and even open 
up opportunities for them to say things which would be apt to 
hurt my feelings, that I might prove to myself and them that 
I had outgrown my sensitiveness. Then a time was always sure 
to come which found me so hurt that I would literally have to 
be forced to go and meet people again. I remember also that, 
at about this age, three or four times it happened that when 
dressed to go to church with the rest of the family, for no reason 
I knew of, I would positively refuse to go to church, and would 
feel like crying instead. 

[127] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

During all this time of about three years, however, I realized 
that my mental condition was not as it should be, and I con- 
stantly strove to become more like my mother. 

There was a girl I knew who up to her fourteenth year used 
to be considered a quiet, shy little backward child, without 
many interests, given much to crying, very sensitive, very stu- 
dious. However, in about her fourteenth year she began to 
develop an interest in athletics ; gradually basket ball, gymna- 
sium work, tennis, and skating took their place in her sphere of 
interests, and she changed wonderfully. Not only did her physi- 
cal health improve but her disposition changed from a decidedly 
disagreeable one to a happy, cheerful, healthy attitude. She has 
continued to develop along this line and is now one of the most 
charming girls I know. 

The alteration which took place in my behavior during one 
year of my life certainly was " sudden." One summer my be- 
havior was characterized by a sort of nervous restlessness and 
unwonted activity. It seemed that I had to be doing, doing, 
doing things all the time. The least thing new aroused my 
enthusiasm. I became almost a " faddist " in my zeal for cer- 
tain things, was especially fond of flowers, and " raved " over 
ordinary sunsets in spite of the teasing of my friends. I seemed 
to be continually trying to create excitement and was usually 
successful. I was classified as the "impulsive type," but during 
the following winter and spring I seemed to "settle down" more 
and almost approached the other extreme, became disinterested 
in many of my former " fads," made fewer plans for doing 
things, rested more, became less confident of myself, in contrast 
with my former attitude that nothing was too big or impossible 
to attempt. My friends noticed the change and instead of teas- 
ing to restrain my exuberance, made efforts to arouse me to 
my former self. Gradually, however, a normal condition set 
in, and I enjoyed a happy medium between the two extremes. 

[128] 



THE PERIOD OF DAYDREAMS 

I was very ambitious for honors at school in studies as well 
as in social phases of the school life, wanted to be considered 
popular, and was quite selfish in my views for a while. I began 
to be less M afraid of boys," joined a dancing class and enjoyed 
it, in spite of the fact that I used to think M boys were horrid " 
before that. I was influenced by a young lady, a graduate of 
Vassar College, who was interested in settlement work, and 
taught in our school for a year, and desired to enter the same 
field of work. I used to be very fond of children and longed 
to be able to help the poor suffering mass of humanity in the 
crowded parts of big cities. I read many stories of tenement 
life, which developed a broad sympathy and altruistic ideals. 

I was always writing something new in the story line. Many 
a time I 've written a story when studying seemed to be out of 
the question. Also my creative imagination found vent in my 
music, which I began to study soon after the age of twelve. 
Pieces and even the prettiest of my exercises had a picture 
woven into their music. So it seems that the very simple 
images which I formed when young helped to increase my 
powers of imagination as I grew older. 

I used to dream of being a wonderful violinist, piano-player, 
singer, reader, and master of almost all the careers I had knowl- 
edge of. I also dreamed of traveling all over the world. 

Daydreams may be of great advantage if a young per- 
son is led to live out some of the ideals they represent. If 
a girl dreams of doing deeds of mercy, that attitude of 
mind may become such a part of her that she will inevi- 
tably perform such deeds. If a boy dreams of being a hero, 
he is more than likely to become one. Daydreams are a 
disadvantage, however, when they get so far away from 
real life that they have no bearing upon it. When a young- 
ster has the loftiest kind of daydreams but few ideals for 
everyday life, he is not the easiest person to live with. 

[129] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

Life idealized. There may be daydreaming in some 
form at almost any time of life, but the typical period for 
such dreams is from about fourteen to eighteen. Day- 
dreams are less playful and fanciful than the creative 
imaginings of earlier years. The world of daydreams is 
not a fairy realm but the real world partly made over 
according to one's desires. What is represented is not 
absolutely impossible in the world as it exists, although 
it may be extremely improbable. In a daydream self 
always plays a prominent part. Not only his surround- 
ings but the youth's personality is idealized, with some of 
his powers increased to an extraordinary degree, and he 
is the center of events which bring to him the greatest 
pleasure and honor. Daydreams are usually anticipatory 
rather than reminiscent and are nearly always, to a con- 
siderable extent, directed by wishes or desires. Some- 
times they have a backward look, as when one represents 
the brilliant things he might have said or done until he 
feels as if he had acquitted himself very creditably. The 
following are typical : 

In my daydreams I was either some favorite character in a 
a book or some person whom I very much admired ; I was 
always the center of attraction. Oftentimes I lived over again 
experiences which were past and in which I had had an insig- 
nificant part, but in the dream I was the chief actor. I was 
always witty and an excellent talker in my dreams, while in 
reality I was the opposite. 

I used to dream about many things. Often it was about 
characters in books, whose actions I would go over and often 
revise to suit myself. Often I would dream of my friends and 
what I would like them to do. But always I myself would have 
some part in the actions of the others (and most often it was 

t'3o] 



THE PERIOD OF DAYDREAMS 

the chief part) when I would imagine the others admiring me. 
I used to dream of myself as a great actress, and I would go 
over and over the picture of myself in great successes, singing 
some wonderful song on the stage before an applauding house. 
Very often after this I would dream I was a master, such as 
Beethoven, giving a wonderful concert before people who fairly 
worshiped me. This kind of dreaming was not wholly bad, for 
it would spur me on to do my practicing regularly and thought- 
fully. It was in this way connected with real life. The dreams 
that did me harm were of the sentimental sort, which had no 
connection with my real life, only made me extremely sensitive, 
and made me think I was possessed of some fine temperament 
above others. 

Romantic imagination. Nearly all daydreams are in 
a sense romantic in character. The most interesting and 
remarkable things of which the individual knows are 
represented as entering into his life in various forms. 
There is much that is commonplace and monotonous in 
the objects, persons, and events of everyday life, and he 
finds much pleasure in representing himself as meeting 
new people, manifesting extraordinary powers, and enjoy- 
ing all sorts of delightful experiences or the most thrill- 
ing adventures. Many of these imaginings are associated 
with idealized individuals of the opposite sex. Material 
gained from history and from fiction is drawn upon in 
creating the ideal life of romance, but the self is nearly 
always prominent. Novels do not produce these romantic 
tendencies but minister to them and determine in some 
degree the form which they take. 

Ambition. Daydreams are to some extent prophecies 
as to the individual's future. This is not necessarily true 
of the objective events which occur, but it is, to a greater 

[131] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

or less extent, as regards the characteristics ascribed to 
himself. This is especially true when the youth in his 
daydreams represents himself as putting forth extreme 
effort and persevering until success is reached. The kind 
of success attained in the future may vary considerably 
from that which is pictured in daydreams, but the effort 
that one imagines himself to put forth is likely to be real- 
ized if at the time of such imaginings the youth is actively 
engaged in achieving athletic, scholastic, or other successes. 
This is the time when it is of most importance that he 
shall become acquainted, either in real life or through 
history, literature, or science, with great personalities. 

The following will serve as a typical example of a girl's 
daydreams : 

During this period of daydreams, I was self-conscious to the 
extent that I always knew, or at least thought I knew, when 
people were talking about me, and I was never satisfied until 
I knew what was said and was eager for compliments. If I had 
a gown, suit, or hat which I thought was becoming to me, I 
looked for admiration and was disappointed if I did not get it. 

I always recited and took part in amateur performances a 
great deal, and expected compliments afterward. As a matter 
of fact, performing before people and receiving so many com- 
pliments helped to increase my self-consciousness. I used to sit 
and dream of a day when I would be world-renowned as a 
poetess. At other times I would picture myself an actress with 
large audiences before me. 

When thirteen years old I had an idea that I could write a 
book. I wrote two notebooks full of a story entitled M The 
Peacemakers." I brought my very best friends into a room 
(after the completion of the book) and told them that they had 
an authoress for a friend. I read them the story, but somehow 
or other did not feel great after I read it to them, and ever 

[•32] 



THE PERIOD OF DAYDREAMS 

after I lost ambition in that direction and no longer dreamed 
of being an authoress. I used to walk around and think of how 
I might have done things differently. My greatest dream was 
of how I could get rich and help the poor. The plans I laid 
were manifold. 

Even to this day I dream. In fact, my mind wanders to 
such an extent that often when mother asks me for something 
I have only a vague idea of what she asked and thus bring her 
something else. 

These dreams are advantageous to the extent that they often 
spur one on to realize them. I am not an actress, for I have 
higher ambitions ; however, I still enjoy being in amateur plays. 
I am not a poetess, for I have never devoted much time to 
writing poetry for publication ; however, I have written much 
verse for my own amusement, some sorority poems and songs, 
papers, and many letters in verse. I am not a great philan- 
thropist yet, but I hope to be some day. Thus I feel that my 
dreams were not all futile. 

There is a possibility of becoming erratic, absent-minded, and 
sentimental if one dreams too much. For instance, if I had 
dreamed too much of what I am about to relate I don't sup- 
pose it would have produced the best effect. I used to dream 
of my home, and little ones sitting around after supper, and of 
how I would play with them and then send them off to bed, 
and discuss matters for the rest of the evening with my " dear 
husband." 

EXERCISES 

The practical significance of the imaginative tendencies may per- 
haps best be brought out by a debate as to the relative prominence 
of good or bad results attending extreme activity of the imagination, 
and a discussion of the best means of diminishing, increasing, or 
directing imaginative activity through work, play, reading, dramatics, 
or achievements such as planned by directors of corn clubs, tomato 
clubs, etc., and by the regulations and activities of the Boy Scouts 
and Camp Fire Girls. 

[133] 



CHAPTER XIV 

EVILS AND DANGERS OF THE IMAGINATION 
IN CHILDREN 

Playful and pleasurable imagination. All good things 
have possibilities of evil and danger. Misery as well as 
pleasure may be produced by the imagination. It may 
also be futile or destructive of mental power or detri- 
mental to the moral nature. 

In physical and mental health imagination contributes 
to the fullness of life and is more concerned with pleasur- 
able experiences and constructive effort than with dis- 
agreeable images and vain imaginings. The same instinct 
which impels one to diminish or avoid pain causes one 
to cherish pleasurable rather than painful images. 

This is especially true of the playful use of the imag- 
ination, examples of which have already been given in 
preceding chapters. This unrestrained play of the imag- 
ination may, of course, have unfortunate results when it 
is carried to excess. Not only may it take the place of 
useful, well-directed effort, which would in some cases 
be more valuable, but it may result in a state of mind 
which makes it impossible to direct the imagination to 
useful ends or to prevent imaginative activity from being 
so confused with realities that discernment of truth is 
difficult or impossible. 

This playful activity may take peculiar forms and is 
associated with the desire to seek a variety of emotional 

[134] 



EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 

life by having in a more or less intense form many kinds 
of experiences, painful as well as pleasurable. This tend- 
ency makes tragedy as well as comedy interesting and 
even enjoyable. Many things may more safely be experi- 
enced in imagination than in reality, but there are dan- 
gers. Imagination begun in a semiplayful way may become 
serious, as when a little girl who had heard of the sick- 
ness of an aunt began repeating in a rhythmic way to 
her dolly as she rocked, " Auntie is sick and maybe she 
will die," in a sadder and sadder tone until she burst 
into tears and could not easily be pacified. 

The sentimentalist is one who dwells in the world of 
imaginative emotion without being stimulated to effective 
action in dealing with realities. Some representation of 
emotional states in childhood, not too intense or pro- 
longed, may be advantageous rather than harmful, but 
there is always the danger that it may be carried too far 
and become a permanent condition, instead of a passing 
phase of development in which this flowering of the emo- 
tional life is followed by the fruits of solid character 
and well-directed effort. 

Evils are almost sure to result from imaginative activity 
when the self is made too prominent, especially in con- 
nection with representations of the pathetic with oneself 
as the subject. Sometimes children revel in imaginative 
representations of their own suffering and death. This 
more frequently occurs after punishment or reproof. Such 
direction of imagination may arouse a good deal of self- 
pity and become injurious, as in the following : 

Between the years of eleven and twelve I grew rather morbid. 
My thoughts dwelt a great deal on death. Everyone was mis- 
treating me, and death would be a relief. Often I would have 

[•35] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

an entire death scene. I imagined myself dying, then lying in 
the coffin, but before I could imagine myself in the cold grave, 
tears of self-pity would be streaming, and I would run to mother, 
saying, "I don't want to die." 

Evil results may also follow the half-playful exploration 
by the imagination of the possible human emotions, when 
any one kind of mental picturing is given too much 
prominence and reality by association with some funda- 
mental instinct. In childhood the danger of injury 
through fear is much greater for the imaginative child 
than for others. The pleasant thrill of fear produced by 
playful use of the imagination may be gradually trans- 
formed into a paralyzing horror or morbid picturing of 
dangers that are not imminent and that would have little 
influence upon a less imaginative child. One girl often 
suffered at night from fear of bears, though she greatly 
enjoyed in the daytime a modified game of hide and seek 
in which the bear was "It," and great ingenuity was exer- 
cised in escaping him. On the other hand, playful imag- 
ination may counteract fear, as in the case of a little girl 
who employed her playful imagination in making up 
stories to such an extent that she could go on errands 
in the dark without fear. 

In adolescence the sex instinct is a serious source of 
danger to the imaginative child if his imagination gets 
started along wrong lines. On the other hand, the same 
instinct may be a powerful stimulus to the founding of 
moral and religious ideals, to artistic and intellectual 
productions, and to ambition in various forms. 

Serious or purposeful imagination. When engaging in 
any new form of motor process, such as gymnastic move- 
ments or in manual work, the motions are often rehearsed 

[136] 



EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 

in imagination before they are made. In solving puzzles 
or working out plans or problems the imagination is often 
occupied with preliminary representations of what the 
process is to be. These preliminary sketches of proce- 
dure are made quickly and with pleasure when they seem 
to promise a satisfactory performance or solution. If, 
however, no adequate representation of means and results 
can be made, there is a baffled feeling which is decidedly 
disagreeable. It may even become horrible if one is im- 
pressed with the seriousness of a situation, as when danger 
seems imminent enough to demand that something be done 
at once. The most universal excitants of fear are sudden 
strong stimuli and things that are strange, unusual, or 
mysterious. The first demands instant action, but favors 
wild imaging rather than the orderly working out of a 
suitable plan ; the second projects one into a little-known 
field, where dangers continue to threaten, but no way out 
is seen. Just as a pursued animal rushes hither and 
thither, so the mind pictures one terror after another and 
finds no means of gaining freedom. Indefiniteness is 
stimulating to the imagination, and when mystery arouses 
fear there is an almost irresistible tendency to go on pic- 
turing the desperate situation from which there is no 
apparent escape. 

This is especially true when a child begins to think of 
something disturbing when alone in the dark. One phan- 
tom danger after another appears, with no way of meet- 
ing it suggested and with no real objects visible to divert 
the attention. This may continue until a scream of terror 
brings someone, and a light shows what is really present 
in the room. So vivid, however, have these mental crea- 
tions become that they are scarcely dispelled by the sight 

[ 137 1 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

of familiar objects and the sound of reassuring words. 
In other instances there are no definite images of a par- 
ticular form of danger, but a continued feeling of insecurity 
which the individual has no means of combating. For 
example, a child of four who had associated Germany 
with the terrors of war, when there was talk of a possible 
war with that country, wanted to sleep with her mother 
lest Germany come and get her in the night. 

The first time that a certain kind of fear is felt, it is 
often possible to give relief by showing that there is no 
real danger. In nearly all instances, however, in which 
fear has been intense or has persisted for some time it 
is not usually possible to relieve the mental tension by 
showing that there is nothing to be afraid of. Even 
though the reason is convinced, the imagination will con- 
tinue to produce disturbing images and the muscles to 
give the fear reactions whenever the circumstance recurs. 
It is usually much more effective to suggest a way of 
meeting the danger than to continue to dwell on the fact 
that there is no occasion for fear. The assurance that an 
older person will protect a child is often sufficient. In 
one case a child who was afraid to go on an errand in 
the dark was told to think of her father as being with 
her as she walked along, and by keeping his image in 
mind she went without being frightened. This idea of a 
companion as a means of safety may be effective, even 
when the companion is younger and more helpless than 
oneself. For example, a girl of ten was not afraid to go 
into a dark room if a two-year-old brother went with her. 

Sometimes terror is transformed into pleasure by an 
imaginary solution of the difficulty, as when a boy pic- 
tures the woods as filled with bears, lions, Indians, etc., 

[138] 



EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 

which he is able to slay by pointing his stick gun at 
them. Many superstitions represent imaginative means of 
meeting or avoiding dangers which have come to be 
accepted as reliable. If believed in, these are just as 
effective in quieting unpleasant activity of the imagination 
as are scientifically formulated rules of safety. 

Indeed, scientific directions for avoiding danger which 
are not surely effective may prove of little or no value in 
allaying fear. For example, a teacher who explained some 
of the ways of decreasing the probability of being struck 
by lightning succeeded only in exciting a terror of it that 
had never before been experienced. One girl of ten suf- 
fered for more than a year from such fears, although tak- 
ing the precautions suggested by keeping her head- at 
night as far as possible from the head of the bed, which 
was of iron. She had in some way got the idea that 
lightning entered the ears, so it did not matter that her 
feet were near the iron footboard. The precautions were, 
however, of small service in allaying her fears, because 
the remedy was not believed to be infallible. 

There are many instances showing that " a little knowl- 
edge is a dangerous thing " as far as peace of mind is 
concerned. Acquaintance with the dangers due to germs 
produces in some people more imaginative terror of disease 
than is allayed by many well-founded directions as to how 
to avoid infection. The danger seems imminent, and the 
safeguards not sure ; hence many persons are in deadly 
terror of germs though continually taking precautions 
against them. 

Some minds are filled with forebodings, and trivial 
incidents, as in the following case, may be woefully ex- 
aggerated or distorted. 

[ 1 39 ] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

Once at the age of sixteen, when in poor health, I kissed my 
mother good night ; she allowed me to kiss her, but did not 
return the kiss. I went upstairs and thought about it. The 
more I thought of it the worse pranks my imagination played 
on me. I saw myself a good-for-nothing, unable to accomplish 
a single thing well. I saw myself in later life in ragged clothes, 
with wrinkled face, worth nothing to myself or the world. When 
father and mother came upstairs a little after midnight they 
found me crying, and for a couple of hours they stayed with me, 
trying to comfort me. 

The accumulating results of imaginative terrors are well 
illustrated by the following : 

When I was a child about five years of age I was sent to 
bed unusually early one evening, and because it was not my 
regular bedtime I was not sleepy. I lay several hours with eyes 
wide open. At first there was no thought of fear, then, slowly, 
strange, fearful objects took shape in the room. Too frightened 
to call I lay there in nervous terror till late at night and was 
still awake when my older sister came into the room. The next 
night I was sent to bed at the regular hour, but could not sleep 
and again became frightened. This continued for several nights, 
until finally I refused to go to bed alone unless some one of the 
family promised to sleep with me. No one could understand it, 
because I had never been afraid and had never been willfully 
frightened by anyone. I cannot remember that I was afraid of 
any particular thing, such as "bears" or "bogy men"; indeed, 
it was not long till there was no actual physical fear, yet I had 
a horror of being in the room alone or sleeping with anyone 
who was not of our own family. During the day I would 
promise myself and my mother I would be brave, but when 
evening came would become almost ill with nervous dread, and 
often could not eat the evening meal. I cannot remember ex- 
actly how the trouble was overcome. However, the memory of 
it is very vivid, for my childish suffering was intense. 

[140] 



EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 

A year or so later I went through much the same thing, be- 
ginning to imagine things at night, because I did not have the 
courage to tell my mother of something wrong I had done, and 
it did not leave me until I finally told her. 

When I was about eleven my mother was very ill, and I 
overheard someone saying she might not live. That chance 
remark set my imagination to working overtime again. I be- 
came nervous and frightened, could not sleep that night, and 
for a long time, when evening came on, I would often be almost 
ill with dread of a something I could not explain. I could hardly 
be persuaded to be out of sight of my mother, after coming 
home from school. 

The last trouble I had with this peculiar fear and nervous- 
ness was at about the age of twelve, when I was away from 
home and homesick. During the day I was happy, but at night 
the old trouble came back ; and even now, if anything disturbs 
me, I am inclined to become panicky at night. 

Imagination in relation to lying. In early childhood 
the imaginative life rivals the real, in its vividness and 
interest, and the child often feels no need to distinguish 
between the two. An imaginative child often relates the 
events of his mental life as if they were real. This is in 
no way abnormal or objectionable in its beginning, but if 
the desirability of distinguishing between the two kinds 
of events is not brought home to the child, and he con- 
tinues to confuse and substitute one for the other, the 
conditions become abnormal in that the power of the 
mind to know the truth, so as to deal successfully with 
realities, is lessened. This danger is not so great when 
the imagination is used playfully and for the immediate 
pleasure of the moment. If such imagination is associated 
with action, the power to discern the truth is strengthened 
rather than weakened. The child who sometimes deals 

[mm 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

with real objects and persons and sometimes with imagi- 
nary can scarcely avoid being impressed with the difference 
between them. The imaginary are under his control, as 
the real are not, and this alone impresses him with the 
difference between the two and makes it almost certain 
that he will not be easily deluded, in more serious situa- 
tions, into believing what he wants to believe rather than 
facing facts as they are. 

The most serious danger from accepting as true only 
what is pleasing is in the case of children who have not 
engaged in imaginative play at all or, having done so, 
have not had much to do with real things and persons. 
They are much more likely to accept as true the repre- 
sentations that please them. 

The strength of this tendency is shown not only in 
playful imaging but also in all testimony of children and 
adults regarding exciting events in which they have had 
a part, especially if it be a quarrel. Few persons can en- 
tirely resist this tendency. Each presents the facts that 
are most favorable to himself, with some additions, and 
deceives himself as well as others as to the exact circum- 
stances involved. Vivid images as to what might have 
been done may also deceive one into believing that what 
was imaged really occurred. 

If there is a definite reason for wishing to deceive, 
the telling of what has been imaged as if it were real 
may tend to confirm the individual in his half belief that 
his images do represent realities. The selfish and self- 
righteous individual is thus notoriously inclined not only 
to deceive others but also to become self-deceived. 

In the case of able and imaginative persons the selfish 
lie may, on the other hand, be clearly distinguished as 

[142] 



EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 

false, and much dramatic and imaginative ability may be 
shown in deceiving others, but with full consciousness 
that the truth is otherwise. Such lying, however objec- 
tionable morally, is not psychologically abnormal. On the 
contrary, it quickens the intelligence to invent something 
that will seem plausible and the falsity of which will not 
be easily detected. It also involves care in remembering 
what has been previously told, so as to avoid contradiction 
and discovery. If such an individual keeps his fabrica- 
tions within bounds and remembers them so as to keep 
them consistent, he may succeed for a long time in de- 
ceiving others to his own advantage without in any way 
weakening his mental powers. If, however, he so delights 
in his clever inventions that he lies when the truth would 
better serve his purposes, and cannot remember what he 
has previously told, his mental powers are likely to be 
somewhat decreased, and thus his imagination becomes 
abnormal, since it acts in opposition to his self-interest 
and to the efficiency of his intellectual processes. 

Children frequently become adepts in manufacturing 
stories explaining why they have not done what was expected 
of them. If they can thus retain favor, this method of 
meeting situations by excuses and lies, instead of by honest 
effort in doing the thing required, is continued and im- 
proved upon. Sooner or later, however, they fail to con- 
vince and are driven to excessive and often abnormal lying. 

Lying is the almost universal means of protection and 
safety resorted to by those who are weak and helpless 
and by those who by negligence, dishonesty, or other 
wrongdoing have got themselves into difficulties. Lying, 
to the imaginative individual, is the easiest way of tem- 
porarily meeting the situation. Individuals out of harmony 

[143] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

with their environment and in a state of mental conflict 
may lie when confronted by each new situation, just as 
spontaneously and with as little discrimination as one 
person jumps or screams when frightened, or another, 
when angered, flies into a tantrum or scolds vociferously. 
The fabrications may do no more good than the emotional 
expressions. They are merely an active but ineffective 
response to a disturbing situation. Such an individual 
often lies glibly and voluminously, although he knows 
that he will be detected and his interests will be harmed 
rather than helped by his stories. 

In some individuals the tendency to this abnormal use 
of the imagination is greatly increased by desire for notice 
and notoriety. This is often shown by persons who make 
false charges of assault against prominent persons, or re- 
port that they have witnessed a murder, or, in some cases, 
accuse themselves of murder or other crimes. In this way 
they secure the public notice that more efficient individuals 
get through notable achievements. When such a course is 
continued, though it is clear that it is against self-interest, 
the lying is abnormal, yet is often practiced by persons 
who do not seem to be really insane or feeble-minded. 

Mental conflict as cause of wrongdoing. Sometimes 
disturbing questions concerning instinctive tendencies are 
the occasion of abnormal activity of the imagination ; as 
when a girl relates a long story of her immoralities, 
although she has really been strictly chaste in her con- 
duct. In this case false imagings take the place of wrong 
actions without any real solution of life's problems being 
found. 

In other cases mental conflict caused by conscious- 
ness of wrongdoing associated with instinctive tendencies, 

[144] 



EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 

of oneself or others, gives rise to wrong actions of an 
entirely different type, in which images play a consider- 
able part. Dr. Healey reports a case of this kind that 
would usually be regarded as one of typical kleptomania. 
A girl, who after careful observation and testing was 
found to be intelligent and normal in other respects, stole 
repeatedly, often things that were of no use to her. She 
could give no reason why she did so. Inquiry, however, 
revealed the fact that the impulse to steal was associated 
with certain disturbing thoughts or images. It was found 
that when eight or nine years old, during a summer vaca- 
tion, she had formed the acquaintance of an older girl who 
stole and who also talked of her relations with boys. The 
little girl was stirred by these partially understood ideas 
of wrongdoing. She was a modest child and showed no 
tendency whatever to sex immorality, which she thought 
must be very bad, but whenever she thought of the older 
girl and what she did and said, she had the impulse to 
the less serious form of wrongdoing, that of stealing. 
When the mysteries of sex were explained to her the 
disturbing thoughts ceased, and she no longer had the 
previously unaccountable impulse to steal. 

Dr. Healey gives several other instances of stealing 
and irregularity of conduct growing out of mental con- 
flicts connected with sex. A boy of nine was told of sex 
matters by companions, thus producing a mental conflict 
that resulted in stealing. In the case of an older boy 
the sight of a young woman who had made love to him 
caused him to become restless and dissatisfied. Presently 
he left his delivery team and went off and spent thirty- 
five dollars of his employers' money. He worked three 
months to pay it back. He was not sexually immoral, 

[145] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

but frequently stole when certain images came to his 
mind. This may be contrasted with the many instances 
when the thought of a lover stimulates to noble action 
and high achievement. 

Another boy of ten stole and told lies as a result of 
mental conflict produced by images of bad words he had 
heard. Any mental conflict, especially that between duty 
and desire, if not harmonized may thus produce abnormal 
activity of the imagination. 

It seems from these and other cases that imaginative 
activity associated with an instinctive impulse may remain 
a disturbing mental influence as long as no satisfactory 
way of acting or thinking in response to this impulse is 
found. So long as such a mental conflict continues there 
are likely to be imagery and action that are contrary to 
self-interest, or, in other words, the condition is abnormal. 

How to guard against the dangers of imagination. It 
is not to be inferred that all mental conflicts are abnormal. 
On the contrary, invention, discovery, philosophical theo- 
ries, and religious beliefs are the healthy outcome of men- 
tal conflicts. The abnormal mental conflict is that which 
leads to hysterical or blind struggling, which only in- 
creases the disturbance or diverts the imagination into 
unnatural channels. 

There are two natural correctives of abnormal imagina- 
tive activities : one is a great deal of experience in deal- 
ing with things, whereby their real nature and the limits 
of one's power may be discovered ; and the other is 
association with people who are continually demonstrating 
by actions, and occasionally by words, how situations may 
be met and problems solved. The child who has plenty of 
opportunity for play and work and for observing, imitating, 

[i 4 6] 



EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 

and questioning people is safeguarded against - most of 
the dangers of excessive and perverted imagination, at 
least so far as his immediate surroundings are concerned. 

Injurious activity of the imagination comes from un- 
usual and startling experiences or from objects, forces, 
or events that have not come within the child's previous 
experience and of which he can get no satisfactory 
explanation by observation and questions. 

Some of the special excitants of the imagination which 
are not easily normalized by experience or observation are 
concerned with death, birth, and religion. The explana- 
tion given children by older people sometimes, instead of 
solving the mystery and suggesting a rational course of 
action, only increases it and stimulates the imagination 
to useless and unsatisfying activity. 

If a child without preliminary experience and knowl- 
edge of the death of plants, animals, and persons is sud- 
denly confronted by a complete change of the family life 
through the death of one of its members, the shock is 
often profound. The child frequently suffers terribly and 
sometimes for years is oppressed by the fear of his own 
death or of that of some other member of the family. 
The following is a good illustration : 

One instance of imagination has worked to my detriment 
even to this day. When I was ten years old I lost my brother 
and, having seen but little sickness and no death, it left me with 
such a horror that I was haunted by thoughts of it day and 
night. Shortly after this a woman living near us, who, I now 
know, was not quite sane, took a very great dislike to me and 
did all in her power to make me unhappy. Knowing my great 
fear of sickness and death, she one day told me that because 
I was such a naughty little girl the Lord was going to take my 

[147] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

mother away from me, as He had my brother, and that she 
was going to be ill a long time first. When she told me this, 
it seemed as though I could not bear it. I would not be away 
from my mother one instant. I imagined she was getting 
thinner and paler every day. I became morose and blue and 
no one could do anything with me. I would dream of it by 
night and wake up screaming with horror. I had to go to 
school, but many times the teacher would have to send me 
home because of my crying. Always I saw my mother sick and 
dying. It took me many months to become convinced of my 
foolishness, and the nerve strain which I suffered has its effect 
on me even to-day. 

The death of a playmate is often equally disturbing. 
If the older people are disinclined to talk about the de- 
ceased or about death, the child is further impressed and 
disturbed by his own attempts to solve the mystery. If, 
on the other hand, adult companions of the child speak 
freely of the one who has died, just as of absent persons, 
and death is explained as being similar to sleep, the 
strangeness of death is minimized and thus loses its 
horror. If the idea of permanent sleep in the cold 
ground is disturbing to the child the assurance that there 
is no feeling diminishes the terror, and the religious doc- 
trine of a future resurrection is often comforting. The 
statement that the body only is in the ground and the 
spirit in heaven is often more confusing than satisfying. 
One little girl thought of dead people as being still and 
having their eyes closed, and could not understand how 
they could play and be happy in that condition as she 
had been told they were. 

Stories of persons buried alive have caused many 
people lifelong misery, leading sometimes to a decidedly 

[i 4 8] 



EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 

morbid condition of mind. In the case of one girl of ten 
the imagery was so vivid that she could almost feel herself 
suffocating and would put out her hands to see if she 
could feel the coffin sides. She would then begin to cry 
and call for her mother. 

The phenomena associated with birth are not in their 
nature depressing and terrifying as are those of death, 
yet they may become equally strong stimuli to useless and 
injurious activity of the imagination. Adults have con- 
spired to prevent children from having any true knowledge 
of the phenomena and have misled and mystified them. 
Such instances as the following are really pathetic though 
usually regarded as amusing. A little girl who much de- 
sired a baby brother, and had heard some remark leading 
her to think that people had to get babies by going fish- 
ing for them, went day after day to a small stream and 
fished for a baby until she finally became discouraged. 
When children who have been kept from knowing the 
truth and have been intentionally deceived hear a vulgar 
distortion of the facts from some companion, they are 
shocked, and the knowledge that such talk is condemned 
by elders increases the child's interest in such subjects 
and makes them more fascinating, at the same time giving 
evil associations to many things that are not naturally con- 
nected with wrongdoing. To children whose sex instincts 
have not awakened, the mere fact that there are mysteries 
regarded as evil by adults is sufficient to stimulate the 
imagination along those lines, to the detriment of future 
morals, and to produce in some instances abnormal mental 
conflicts. 

After the sex instinct develops, the mind which might 
have been filled with beautiful images, as the bird's throat 

[ M9] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

with song at the mating season, is much more likely to 
be occupied with the coarse and debasing images asso- 
ciated with sex that were acquired earlier. When carried 
to excess this not only results in immorality but directs the 
mind from more healthful activity and not infrequently 
results in mental and physical deterioration. In other 
cases there is a conflict between the higher and the lower 
ideals of conduct which is more or less abnormal. Com- 
paratively few find a way of harmonizing desires, but 
instead try to suppress one by the other. 

Religious teaching may be a means of stimulating the 
imagination in such a way as to excite abnormal terrors 
or so as to solve difficulties and give peace and harmony. 
The following is a result of a certain kind of so-called 
religious teaching : 

A boy of four had been told that he must not listen 
to the devil when he whispered in his ear telling him to 
do naughty things. The devil immediately became very 
real to the child, and when reproved for doing something 
naughty he would whirl around and stamp on the floor, 
trying to crush the devil, who, however, always eluded 
him and remained at his back. 

The doctrine of future punishment has been a source of 
intense mental suffering to many adults and, in a greater 
degree, to children. Emphasis upon sin and the presen- 
tation of God as a hater and punisher of sin, whose eyes 
see all things, lead to all sorts of images of punishments 
that may be inflicted at any time. 

On the other hand, the idea of a God who is an all- 
powerful friend and will protect His children solves most 
of the problems of life so far as the imagination is 
concerned. 

[150] 



EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 

In order that imagination may be kept in healthful 
lines the child must feel himself in harmony with the 
physical world in which he lives, with the people with 
whom he associates, and with whatever higher Power he 
is taught exists. When he destroys objects or is bruised 
or hurt by them, he is irritated and temporarily out of 
proper relations with them. The feeling of harmony may 
be restored by showing him how to deal with them so 
that they are preserved and made to serve his purposes. 
In a similar way wrongdoing sets him at variance with 
people and with the higher Power. If he can be taught 
and induced to act in ways that bring good to himself 
and others, harmony is restored. The more the experi- 
ences of life reveal to a person modes of action that are 
suitable to the various situations met, the more does he 
feel at one with the universe in which he lives and with 
all that it contains. This is the essence of religion. One 
who is in this attitude of mind has an imagination that 
works along constructive lines in which abnormal activity 
is impossible. 

All modes of dealing with children which make them 
continuously conscious of failure rather than of success 
are unfavorable to a normal development of the imagina- 
tion. Continual punishment and fear of evils to come 
also produce undesirable developments. Punishment and 
fear can bring about good results only when they quickly 
modifiy conduct and reestablish harmonious relations. 

Literature and imaginative activity. Stories of all 
kinds are important stimuli to the imagination and may 
direct it in ways that are invigorating, beautifying, and 
ennobling in their influence, or they may have the oppo- 
site effect. The latter part of the statement holds true 

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IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

not only for stories admittedly bad but for some that are 
regarded as classics. The Erl-King in story and music is 
one of the worst things that can be presented to a sensi- 
tive child. The mystery is intense, the danger ever pur- 
suing, and the end unexplained death, from which there 
was no escape — all calculated to arouse fear and stir the 
imagination. 

The story of Red Riding Hood, if it makes prominent 
the fate of the grandmother, sometimes causes distress 
and terror, but if the story is properly told this feature 
of it is scarcely noticed. To do away with death entirely 
is absurd, hence there is no occasion to spoil the story by 
having the wolf become good ; on the contrary, his exe- 
cution is the proper and satisfactory outcome of the situa- 
tion. Stories for children do not need to be freed from 
accounts of danger, evil, and death. The essential thing 
is that there shall be a logical and pleasing ending to the 
drama. Such stories as the " Babes in the Wood " and, 
in a less degree, " The Little Match Girl " are objec- 
tionable because they present a distressing experience 
from which there is no relief other than the death of the 
persons in whom the child is interested. They excite only 
to sentimentality and useless imagining. 

Ghost stories are generally bad, especially when no 
attempt is made to clear up the mysteries. The only 
ghost stories that are ever suitable for children are those 
in which the foolishness of unreasoning fear, as shown 
by the incidents in the story, is made so evident and the 
explanation so clear and simple that the whole affair is 
regarded as an amusing joke. 

Fairy stories may be good or bad according as they do 
or do not furnish satisfactory explanations of the situations 

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EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 

presented. If they emphasize mysterious powers of evil 
and do not show how they may be overcome or avoided, 
the child's world, which has enough terrors of its own, has 
added to it the evils and mysteries of the imaginary. Even 
the much-lauded lt Pilgrim's Progress " is of doubtful value 
to most children and certainly injurious to a few. The 
story has the merit of presenting, sooner or later, a satis- 
factory method of dealing with the terrible situations por- 
trayed, but the fear-inspiring power of the giants often 
makes a much stronger impression upon the childish 
mind than do the means of escape. As a fairy story it is 
of questionable value for children, while the deeper truths 
it was intended to teach are little understood by them. 
The following shows the effect upon one child : 

I fully believed in giants. To me they were immense crea- 
tures much larger than a house. I never thought of them dur- 
ing the day, but at night when I went to bed I was in constant 
fear that a giant would come along and smash our house down 
with his huge club. I was greatly relieved when I finally con- 
fided in my mother, and she told me that there were no such 
things as giants. The idea was given me through my father's 
reading to me out of " Pilgrim's Progress," especially the part 
where Christian was captured by the Giant Despair and thrown 
into Doubting Castle. 

Some of the writings of Poe and Hawthorne are not 
suitable for children because of the disturbing and un- 
solved mysteries that they suggest. 

Sorrow and suffering should not be excluded from chil- 
dren's stories ; on the contrary, literature is one of the 
best ways of becoming acquainted with them. For moral 
reasons, however, evil should not be represented as per- 
manently triumphant, and for healthful mental life, baffling 

['53] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

mysteries should not be featured in children's stories. 
Troubles may be portrayed, but there should also be re- 
vealed a desirable mode of meeting them. In other words, 
stories are a means of teaching the truths of life and 
should not present to children evils, sorrows, and mys- 
teries that are not overcome, alleviated, or solved. They 
may be only helplessly grieved or puzzled, while adults of 
vigorous mentality, by similar stories, may be stimulated to 
find a solution of the deeper problems of existence. 

EXERCISES 

1. Give illustrations of playful imagination becoming painfully 
real and disagreeable. 

2. Give illustrations of serious imaginative activity producing 
discomfort increasing to terror, or of relief being found. 

3. Illustrate how lying may be corrected or may develop and 
become abnormal. 

4. Give illustrations of mental conflicts leading to disturbance 
of the imagination and to wrong action. 

5. Show how imaginative activity associated with death, birth, 
and religion may be directed into healthful channels. 

6. Discuss the suitability of various stories to children from the 
standpoint of the solutions they offer to the situations they present. 



[154] 



PART III 
SCHOOL SUBJECTS AND THE IMAGINATION 



CHAPTER XV 

USE AND TRAINING OF IMAGINATION 
IN SCHOOL 

Disciplining the imagination. There has been much 
less said in educational circles about training the imagina- 
tion than about training the memory or the reasoning. 
In truth, there probably is more reason for discussing 
the training of the imagination than of any other power, 
for it is the one most used in every form of school 
work during the period of common-school education 
and one of the most useful all through life. 

Perhaps one reason why less has been said is because 
teachers have felt the hopelessness of the task. Many of 
them have found the imagination of children so active 
and so disturbing to their carefully laid plans of teaching 
and training that they have felt that they had all they 
could do if they kept it in check while the formal school- 
ing supposed to be necessary was given. On the other 
hand, some teachers who are themselves imaginative have 
attempted, often with slight results, to get children to 
image as they themselves do. Comparatively few have 
been able successfully to stimulate and direct children's 
imagination in such a way as to give it effective training. 

The effort to train memory and reasoning so that they 
will function effectively in all lines has been so discourag- 
ing that belief in general or formal discipline has rapidly 

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IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

disappeared. There is reason to think that formal disci- 
pline, even if there should be some value in it, has very 
little application in the training of the imagination. 

The most general characteristic of imagination which 
should be developed is that of increasing the power of 
voluntarily making the imagined seem real without in any 
way confusing it with what has been or is being experi- 
enced. This and other less general characteristics of this 
useful faculty may probably be best developed not by 
special exercises with that end in view but by employing 
the imagination in a variety of useful ways for pleasure 
and for the accomplishment of definite tasks. If a per- 
son's imagination is used so as to help him do a variety 
of things more effectively and with greater enjoyment, it 
will receive better training than by any scheme of formal 
discipline. The general problem of the training of the 
imagination, therefore, resolves itself into a number of 
special problems regarding its practical uses, in all the 
activities of life, including the enjoyment of physical and 
mental play. 

Stimuli to the imagination. No matter what the task 
in hand, mental images are usually brought into mind and 
grouped in such a way as to aid in its accomplishment. 
A brief discussion of objective stimuli to the imagination 
is therefore in order. 

The stimulus most commonly used, especially in school, 
is language. As has already been indicated, words play 
an important part in the early development of the imagina- 
tion by helping to free images from their associations of a 
particular time and place so that such images may easily 
be shifted to new settings. Words continue throughout 
life to be very useful in bringing images into the mind, 

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USE AND TRAINING IN SCHOOL 

but there is a strong tendency for these images to assume 
a single typical form and in many instances to become 
vague, except under special conditions. 

Single words do not, therefore, of themselves usually 
call forth very vivid images. Other words and other in- 
fluences are necessary, and these often combine to produce 
a complex picture that may be quite vivid as a whole, 
although the separate images involved in its construction 
were not formed in response to single words. The gen- 
eral state of mind, all the words of a sentence, and the 
trend of thought produced by preceding words contribute 
to make a vivid complex image. 

Another way in which images are made vivid is by 
uncommon uses of words or unusual arrangements of 
them. This is why poetic and slang expressions are often 
so effective in producing vivid images, while more prosy 
language, where ordinary words are used in the ordinary 
way, provides little or no stimulus to the imagination. 

The art of description consists in using words in such 
a way as to bring to the mind not only the objects named 
but that with which they are associated, and in such an 
order that images once formed do not need to be greatly 
changed, while additional images, as they appear, har- 
monize with and supplement them. The common form of 
the English sentence, in which adjectives precede nouns, 
arouses vague images of quality which become fused into 
a more vivid picture when the object to which they are 
applied is named, while the more usual form of the French 
sentence favors the habit of imaging in an indefinite way 
the thing named and then giving it the specific qualities 
implied by the adjectives that follow. Opinions differ as 
to which language is best psychologically. 

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IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

Individual writers in every language vary from the usual, 
and most readers find it much easier to picture what is 
described by some writers than by others with a different 
style. Whatever manner of writing is used, some images 
must be held in an indefinite form until others are sug- 
gested so that the whole scene may be correctly imaged, 
or there must be disconcerting changes in imagery. If 
the mind is held in suspense too long before the picture 
can be completed, the images which have been vaguely 
formed will have disappeared, and a complete and vivid 
picture will be impossible. 

Children do not naturally hold images in suspense and 
cannot keep many in mind at once, hence their imagina- 
tion is best stimulated by short sentences and by the use 
of only one or two descriptive words or phrases at a time. 
A succession of short sentences presenting one aspect after 
another of the object being described may arouse interest 
and produce very vivid pictures, when a description in one 
sentence containing several corresponding adjectives would 
produce no definite imagery. 

Another very effective stimulus of the imagination is 
action. Appropriate movements made by the person giv- 
ing a description may take the place of words or may 
supplement and emphasize them, and in this way a much 
more vivid idea of the scene is produced. 

Not only are gestures thus effective in stimulating the 
imagination but also the attitudes, expressions of face, and 
tones of voice of the speaker which suggest physical move- 
ments. Observing and imaging such physical action tends 
to produce more or less actual movement of the same kind 
in the listener and this lends reality to the imaginary 
scene. This feeling of reality is greatly increased if the 

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USE AND TRAINING IN SCHOOL 

children are permitted to actually perform some of the 
acts implied in the description. For this reason imagina- 
tion is most effectively stimulated and directed by dramatic 
action on the part of the speaker or the hearer or both. 

Pictures may also be an effective stimulus, although in 
many instances showing pictures to children results in a 
substitution of perception for imagination. If the child 
sees only what the picture represents, there is not much 
imaginative stimulus. If, however, the picture is of some- 
thing the like of which he has never seen, he may study 
it and seek to imagine how the objects it depicts would 
really look or act under various circumstances. To a child 
who has never seen a tiger or an elephant the picture of 
one may be a strong stimulus inciting him to image how 
large it really is, what it may be able to do, and how it 
looks when doing it. On the contrary, if a child is shown 
pictures of mountains, lakes, houses, trees, and people 
which do not differ greatly from any which he has previ- 
ously seen or of which he has seen pictures, his imagina- 
tion is only slightly stimulated. He may merely observe 
what is shown and make no attempt to supplement it or 
to modify it in any way. He may think little of the real 
size of the objects and may accept the idea that their color 
is always just as it is represented in the picture. Pic- 
tures, therefore, often add to the variety of mental images 
that may be produced, without increasing the power to 
construct accurate mental pictures of things described. 

Moving pictures showing objects from different points 
of view or giving a perception of a series of movements 
produce images much more vivid, more correct, and real ; 
hence they supply valuable material to the mind, but the 
power to construct complex scenes is not greatly increased, 

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IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

and probably the tendency to independent construction is 
decreased by learning in this way rather than through 
words. 

Diagrams and crude models are often more effective 
stimuli to the imagination than complete pictures. There 
are no details shown, and the mind must supply them in 
response to the suggestive lines and symbols of the dia- 
gram. The diagram gives an opportunity for such mental 
constructions, but will not of itself produce them. It 
sometimes is studied and memorized simply as a diagram 
with very little picturing of the actual things intended to 
be suggested by it. This is often the case when maps 
are extensively used in geography and charts in science 
or history. 

Objects may be a very effective stimulus of the imagina- 
tion, provided they are used in connection with other means 
of arousing pictures of things not present with which the 
object shown has been associated. The scenes of a foreign 
country may be made much more vivid by showing a single 
specimen of a plant or an article of clothing which formed 
a part of a scene being described. Pictures of single 
objects, such as a tree or a person about whom something 
is being told, may also stimulate the imagination, but not 
quite to the same degree as a real object. 

Directing the imagination. The factors which have 
been mentioned so far are chiefly effective in stimulating 
the formation of images, although with other things they 
do determine the way in which images shall be combined 
into unified and connected pictures. Unless, however, 
there is some thought connected with the mental pictures 
which arouses expectation as to the outcome, or a purpose 
that certain results shall follow, the separate images have 

[162] 



USE AND TRAINING IN SCHOOL 

little meaning or interest. Even moving pictures which 
combine several very effective stimuli are frequently mean- 
ingless and uninteresting when one has not seen the title 
and does not understand the progressive changes in the 
situation. 

One method which is very effective in stimulating the 
imagination, and still more helpful in directing it in the 
right channels, is to give a sufficient idea of what is com- 
ing to excite expectation. Incipient images appropriate 
to the situation are aroused and some idea of the gen- 
eral setting is formed so that when the proper stimuli of 
words, gestures, pictures, or diagrams are given, an out- 
line of the desired kind is promptly filled in by appropriate 
and vivid images. 

Another mode of exciting and directing the imagina- 
tion is to indicate an aim or a purpose to be accomplished ; 
then, as the mind is stimulated by appropriate means to 
form images of objects and acts involved in accomplishing 
that purpose, these images arouse others consistent with 
them, and all arrange themselves in such a way as to lead 
toward the accomplishment of the purpose that has previ- 
ously been represented. Successful lesson-planning is 
that which thus sets clearly before the pupils some end 
to be accomplished and stimulates their imagination so 
that the right materials are brought to mind and significant 
things selected and arranged so as to bring about the 
results desired. 

Mental conditions favoring imagination. The first 
essential in using the imagination is the possession of the 
necessary elementary images for constructing and creating 
in the line desired. One of the chief reasons why chil- 
dren should have varied and extensive sense experiences 

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IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

in early life is that their minds may be supplied with 
images which may be used in constructing and creating 
what is not actually present. For this reason the country 
child, especially if he has had some nature study, is much 
better prepared for the study of some of the sciences than 
the one who has always lived in the city, while the city 
child knows more about cars, electric lights, elevators, and 
other modern devices. The teacher should always ask 
herself before presenting a lesson, "What image material 
do these children probably have to work with ? " She 
should then plan to use such material as they have and 
to supply what is lacking. In doing this she should re- 
member that pictures are not in all cases a reliable sub- 
stitute for the real things. For example, a child in Boston 
who claimed to know what a cow was, when asked its size 
said, "It is so long," holding his fingers about an inch 
apart. 

The second essential is that children shall be given 
sufficient time to make their constructions, and a model 
or suggestions must be given to direct their imagination. 
To ask children to make a design or write a story of a 
certain kind, even though they have the materials with 
which to work, may not be effective unless they have had 
or are given some model to direct their creations. To give 
exercise to the creative imagination, directions must not 
be complete or the model one that is to be followed liter- 
ally. For example, the figures in a rug design may be 
used for the construction of a wall-paper-border design ; 
or an autobiography of a person may be given as a model 
for writing an autobiography of a penny or a flower 
about which the child has studied ; or a pupil may be 
asked to write a humorous description of an animal, with 

[i6 4 ] 



USE AND TRAINING IN SCHOOL 

a description of some person as a model, such as is found 
in Irving's " Ichabod Crane " or in his account of a 
Dutch governor. 

Skill embodied in more or less well-established habits 
is another essential to the successful use and expression 
of imaginative activity. A child who has had no experi- 
ence in using paints and brush is poorly prepared to make 
a design in color, and one who has not mastered the 
mechanics of writing and spelling is not ready to write 
an original story. To the above conditions must be added 
another before any creative activity worth while will take 
place ; namely, an interest or desire that can best be satis- 
fied by such activity. This interest may be playful or seri- 
ous, according to the age and individuality of the child 
and the special circumstances of the case, and may em- 
brace any line of useful human activity ; but to be most 
effective it must be positive. Neither artists nor children 
do their best work under compulsion, but when trying to 
accomplish something in which they are deeply interested. 
If the incentive is strong enough, the individual may 
be induced to acquire the essentials previously named 
(namely, a supply of elementary images and manual skill) 
if he sees that he cannot succeed without them. The 
older type of teacher sought to supply these essentials 
for creative activity so that the child would be properly 
equipped before actually beginning such work ; the newer 
type seeks to arouse desires and stimulate the child to 
acquire the essentials for realizing them. 

The thing attempted should not require so much prepara- 
tion that interest is lost before the work of creation can 
begin. To attain success, the desire to be realized must 
be represented by projects that are not too far in advance 

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IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

of the child's preparation for accomplishing them. Suc- 
cess by the older method is also secured in a similar way. 
Just as soon as a child has gained some creative material 
and acquired some skill in dealing with it he should be 
given a chance to make use of it. Failure, or, at least, 
loss of time and energy, comes from too great a separa- 
tion between learning and its application in the use of 
the constructive and creative powers in satisfying some 
desire or need. 

EXERCISES 

1. Does practice in comparing images that one has constructed 
with actual perceptions train the imagination? If so, in what way 
and how much will power of imagery as applied to other things be 
improved by such practice ? 

2. Does practice in using the creative imagination in one line 
increase originality in all lines? Give proofs. 

3. Mention some of your successes or failures in trying to stimu- 
late the imagination of children. 

4. Prepare several lesson plans with special reference to the 
imaginative activity involved. 

5. Discuss the relative advantages of these two methods : (i) gain- 
ing the essential knowledge and skill, then using them in a creative 
way ; (2) undertaking interesting projects and gaining the necessary 
knowledge while accomplishing what is desired. 



[166] 



CHAPTER XVI 

LEARNING TO READ AND SPELL 

Imagination involved in learning to read. As already 
mentioned, words are an important means of developing 
concrete images. On the other hand, learning to read 
results in developing visual images of words. In learning 
visual words and their correspondence with oral words 
attention is necessarily directed toward imaging symbols 
rather than things. This tendency is increased artificially 
by phonic drill and naturally by the attempt to spell and 
write words. The process of learning to read, write, and 
spell is to a considerable extent one of learning to form 
accurate verbal or word images both visual and auditory. 
A good and rapid listener or reader passes at once from 
the sensory stimulus of the sound or sight of the word 
to a representation or interpretation of what it stands for, 
but in reading aloud and in writing there must be an 
association or translation from one kind of word symbol 
to the other, and in this process the images formed usually 
become dominantly verbal. 

Before beginning to learn to read most children know 
a large number of words, form more or less definite repre- 
sentations of what they stand for, and image in some 
degree the sounds of words. This is the material that 
they have when they begin learning a visual language. 
They must now learn to distinguish the visual forms of 
words and to associate with them images of the sound of 

lie?] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

the words and images of the things indicated. The process 
of learning to read is therefore a process of learning to 
form visual images of words and of recalling, in response 
to this new stimulus, the auditory images and the images 
of things which are already familiar. 

For purposes of silent reading and thought-getting the 
most important thing necessary is that the visual words 
shall quickly suggest the images and ideas for which they 
stand, grouped in accordance with the arrangement of the 
words in sentences. In oral reading the essential thing 
is that when the visual forms of words or parts of words 
are observed, the corresponding sounds shall be quickly 
imaged in the right order. To be able to read aloud and 
at the same time get the thought requires that both of 
these processes shall be carried on together in combina- 
tion with the proper movements of the eye in seeing the 
words and of the vocal organs in uttering them. This is 
a complicated operation, in which several distinct but cor- 
related habits must be formed which tend to supplant the 
imaging process. One is the habit of moving the eyes 
along the lines, pausing momentarily, from three to eight 
times for each line, to recognize words or groups of words. 
Another is that of moving the vocal organs so as to speak 
the words that were looked at the instant before. Besides 
these there are customs of sentence construction and of 
mental classification that facilitate the reading process. 
These habits differ considerably in silent and in oral 
reading, and the methods of teaching may make promi- 
nent either those favorable to word-calling or to rapid 
thought-getting. 

Some teachers regard the process of getting thought 
as the most important, while others lay most emphasis 

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LEARNING TO READ AND SPELL 

upon learning to utter the proper sounds at the sight of 
the visual symbols. The methods of teaching vary in 
accordance with these differing views. 

The thought method. In the thought method the chief 
purpose from the first is to gain the power of imaging 
objects and thinking in response to the stimulus of visual 
words, while a detailed knowledge of the sounds associated 
with the visual symbols is presupposed or acquired inci- 
dentally. This method when properly carried out makes 
the child's previous knowledge of oral words and of what 
they stand for, and of the usual arrangement of words in 
sentences, the apperceptive basis for learning the visual 
words and getting them properly associated with ideas and 
verbal sounds. The process is somewhat analogous to that 
involved in following the thought in a moving-picture 
story. The title and a few words or sentences start the 
thought in the right direction, and the pictures show part 
of the story, while the rest is filled in by the constructive 
imagination in accordance with what is known of the usual 
accompaniments in such scenes. In a similar way a child 
in learning to read may be given an idea of what the 
sentence is about and told one or two words in the sentence 
which suggest to him the oral words in which the incident 
could be expressed, and this prepares him to guess what 
oral words some of the visual symbols must represent. If 
the child becomes thoroughly interested in the story and 
if key words are given him and others added as necessary 
(not too rapidly or too slowly, but just at the right time 
after he has seen them, so that his guess as to what they 
are is confirmed or corrected without breaking the flow 
of thought and destroying the interest of what is coming), 
the child will gain rapidly in the power of getting thought 

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IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

from the printed symbols and of uttering the words that 
he already knows correspond to that thought. Of course 
he often thinks of other words having the same meaning 
instead of the ones in the book, but this is a mistake that 
may easily be corrected. 

Some children become so interested in guessing what 
the thought is going to be and what the words are that 
they do not observe closely the visual forms. It is there- 
fore necessary occasionally to call their attention to the 
likeness or difference of words which they have miscalled 
as compared with words in previous sentences that they 
have correctly named. Mistakes may also be guarded 
against by having familiar words pointed out before the 
child begins reading another lesson or section of the lesson. 
It may be well also to give him the names of important 
words that he is not likely to guess correctly. 

When this method is followed, the child is continually 
using his knowledge of things and incidents similar to 
those described in the story, his acquaintance with oral 
words and their arrangement, and his knowledge of visual 
words which he has recently learned. As learning pro- 
ceeds, the knowledge of visual words which he has acquired 
becomes an important element in his apperception, and he 
does not have to be told so much of the thought before 
he begins reading nor so many of the words as he reads. 

The process in learning to read from this time on is 
very similar to that by which he had previously learned 
to talk. After a child has learned a few oral words he 
hears many sentences containing those words and guesses 
at the meaning of the strange words with which they are 
associated. These guesses are confirmed or corrected by 
the way in which he hears the new words used in other 

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LEARNING TO READ AND SPELL 

sentences. The meanings of words are learned in this 
way in a large proportion of cases. 

In the thought method of learning to read, the objects 
and incidents described should be familiar but interesting, 
and the words and their arrangement should be such as 
the child has often heard and used. With such an apper- 
ceptive background he will soon learn many visual words. 
After a considerable vocabulary has been acquired, the 
words which are familiar to him suggest the thought of 
the sentence, and the combination of letters in a new word 
is suggestive of its sound. Thus the child quickly adds 
new words to both his oral and his visual vocabulary. 

At this stage it may be necessary, however, to lead the 
child to observe more closely the various combinations of 
letters and to associate them more accurately with the 
sounds for which they stand. This will help him to pro- 
nounce correctly the new words that he meets and prepare 
the way for learning to spell. 

The symbol or phonic method. When word naming 
is regarded as the important thing in the early processes 
of learning to read, the attempt is made to get the child to 
image not so much the thing for which the word stands as 
the visual form of the word or the letters composing it and 
the sounds corresponding to them. The child is frequently 
shown words or letter combinations and given the corre- 
sponding sounds. He also sounds words and then they are 
written for him. The same process is repeated over and 
over with letters and with common combinations of letters 
until the child readily images one kind of symbol when he 
sees or hears the other. Words rather than sentences are 
studied, and words are separated into parts, and parts are 
built up into complete words. 

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IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

After a considerable period of time the child has suffi- 
cient apperceptive knowledge of the correspondence be- 
tween the two kinds of symbols to be able to guess or 
infer fairly well the sounds corresponding to the visual 
symbols of new words, or, in other words, to read in the 
sense of calling words. This knowledge enables him to 
guess or infer what combinations of letters must be used 
in a new word. This method, instead of using as an apper- 
ceptive basis thought and symbol images already familiar 
to the child when he enters school, seeks to build up a 
new set of images of visual symbols and to get them asso- 
ciated so closely with sounds that they will at once sug- 
gest the words. By such a method the child may acquire 
more or less facility in naming words, both familiar and 
unfamiliar, which he sees and in spelling those that he 
hears. Even with the best of teaching, however, he is 
likely to make mistakes with new words, partly because 
the English language is not a phonetic one, and the usual 
is the correct in scarcely three fourths of the cases he 
meets, and partly because there is no means of knowing 
how new words are accented unless they are marked in 
accordance with symbols with which he has been made 
familiar. 

After the child has attained some facility in recogniz- 
ing words from his knowledge of letter combinations he 
may be led to think of what the word stands for as well 
as its sound and then to read in the sense of getting 
thought from the printed page. If the drill upon symbols 
has continued for some time there will be a certain amount 
of difficulty in getting him to image objects and events 
instead of symbols and in getting him to speak the 
sentence which he sees instead of merely naming the 

[172] 



LEARNING TO READ AND SPELL 

words of which it is composed. The phonic method 
strictly carried out from the first makes no use of ap- 
perceptive thought material or of knowledge of oral 
symbols, but seeks to build up an apperceptive mass of 
visual symbols to be associated with oral ones. Such a 
method is wasteful of time and energy, and it also 
forms the habit of giving attention to symbols which 
later interferes with the more important thought processes 
involved in reading. 

In the methods of teaching reading now in most common 
use the thought method and the phonic method are usu- 
ally combined, with one or the other preceding and domi- 
nating. In the best methods thought is chiefly prominent, 
while symbol learning and imaging are incidental. 

Learning to spell. It must be admitted that the phonic 
method of learning to read, whatever its wastefulness and 
disadvantages for that purpose, is a pretty good prepara- 
tion for learning to spell. One who has been well trained 
in phonics can guess or infer in a large percentage of 
cases the letter combinations used in spelling new words, 
but there will still remain a considerable number of words 
whose spelling is contrary to all the teachings of phonics, 
and to which any one of two or more rules regarding 
letter combinations might apply with no clue as to the 
correct one. All of the advantages which phonics can 
give may be gained in a fairly short time after a child 
has learned to read by giving him a comparatively small 
amount of drill in phonics in connection with learning 
to spell and in pronouncing new words. In learning to 
read by the thought method he has incidentally associated 
a great many letters and their combinations with the appro- 
priate sounds, and it requires only a little detailed study 

[173] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

to make this knowledge accurate enough to be of con- 
siderable assistance to him in spelling and in the use of 
the dictionary. 

In addition to this it must be recognized that spelling 
is not necessarily dependent in any degree upon a knowl- 
edge of phonics. A child who has learned to read is able 
to form more or less clear visual images of the words that 
are familiar to him. If these images are made sufficiently 
specific, he may spell correctly without any knowledge of 
phonics. In the case of most people at the present time 
visual images doubtless play a larger part in the process 
of recalling the spelling of words than any other form of 
imagery. This is especially true of those who do a great 
deal of reading. They see many words so frequently that 
they form images of them and can tell how they are 
spelled without ever having made any effort to learn. 
Sometimes this image is not perfect enough to enable a 
person to spell a word with assurance, but after the word 
is written he can compare it with his image and tell 
whether it is correct or not. A large proportion of people 
would doubtless become fairly good spellers without any 
training other than that involved incidentally in reading 
and writing. 

There are some, however, who do not learn how to 
spell in this way. They do not observe words in detail, 
but note only the general form which suggests the thought. 
Such persons must have their attention called to the exact 
letters and their order in words to enable them to learn 
to spell. If they have a natural tendency towards specific 
auditory imagery, phonic drill may be of great assistance. 
If, however, their imagery is dominantly visual, but lack- 
ing in detail, they may be helped most by teaching them 

[174] 



LEARNING TO READ AND SPELL 

to give close attention to the parts of words and by giv- 
ing them a great deal of practice in comparing their 
perceptions of words with their visual images of them. 
It is often of advantage to associate this exercise with 
practice in writing the words. One or more words may 
be placed before the child for observation, then they may 
be covered or erased while he images how they looked 
and then writes them. What he has written should then 
be compared with the visual copy to see if it is correct. 
For small children, whose attention is more or less taken 
up by the process of writing, the words must be short or 
their images cannot be held in mind until they are written. 
In all copying that children do they should be encouraged 
to look at what they are copying less and less often and 
hence to carry in their minds images not only of longer 
words but of several words at a time. Separate printed 
letters that can be made into words by children who are 
not able to handle a pencil may be helpful to them. No 
device of this kind, however, is equal to a typewriter as 
a means of learning to spell, but as yet it is not feasible 
to have these machines for use by primary pupils. Learn- 
ing to spell is distinctly a process of learning to form 
auditory, visual, or kinesthetic images, although in the 
latter case especially one may spell by habit without dis- 
tinctly imaging the separate letters before writing or utter- 
ing them. Each teacher should experiment with her pupils, 
having them use different methods of studying their spell- 
ing, employing sight, sound, or movement processes, and 
helping them to discover which mode of studying and 
imaging words is best for each one. 



[175] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

EXERCISES 

1. Cover the page from which a rapid reader is reading aloud and 
notice how many words he can utter afterwards. This will show how 
far his eyes are ahead of the movements of his vocal organs. 

2. Observe the eyes of a reader, either directly or with the aid of 
a hand mirror, as you sit beside him and count the number of pauses 
per line. Do this for persons of varying age and rates of reading 
and compare the number of pauses per line with the number of 
words read per second or minute. 

3. Study different individuals as to their reading rate and habits 
of reading and their ability to get thought by silent or oral reading. 

4. Summarize the advantages and disadvantages of making phonics 
prominent in teaching reading and of making thought prominent. 

5. Discuss the various methods of learning to spell and their 
relation to imagery in the case of special individuals. 



[176] 



CHAPTER XVII 

IMAGINATION IN DRAWING AND CONSTRUCTING 

Images a?id drawing. Without entering into details 
regarding the various kinds of images which may or may 
not be concerned in directing the movements of the hand 
in drawing, it may be said that one usually holds in mind 
some sort of image of how the model looks. A few per- 
sons may draw very simple forms without having vivid 
images, simply making the lines which are necessary with- 
out picturing how they are to look. In the majority of 
cases, however, the person who can draw well, especially 
from memory, is able to image not only the general 
appearance of objects but their details. 

Experiments show that there are various ways in which 
memory in connection with drawing is developed. A very 
common plan is to look at the object and then glance 
away, or close the eyes and try to picture its appearance 
in detail. In drawing from a model this method is fol- 
lowed to some extent, parts of the object being observed, 
then imaged while they are being drawn. Another way 
is to look at an object and make in imagination the move- 
ments that will be necessary in order to draw it. A third 
method is to observe the object, noting its resemblance 
to some familiar or standard form and also some of its 
special peculiarities or variations from the usual, drawing 
it later from these memories or associations. For exam- 
ple, the object as a whole looks like a tree, a house, a 

1*77] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

hatchet, or a geometrical figure with a certain number of 
angles or curves, and it is thus recalled and reproduced 
chiefly by means of verbal associations. 

The first two methods seem to be more effective if the 
drawing is executed immediately, but the images are likely 
to fade, and there is no means of making them vivid or 
of recalling the necessary details, while the third method 
makes recall more sure and certain. A combination of 
all three methods may sometimes best be employed. 

Models and images. Some persons in drawing observe 
the model very frequently and reproduce its details with- 
out variation. Others observe the general appearance of 
what is to be drawn and then reproduce its essential 
features, perhaps with intentional modifications. 

When children first begin drawing they usually glance 
at the object and quickly represent something of the same 
type. If not required to do so, they do not observe the ob- 
ject for any length of time, and they represent the species 
or class to which it belongs rather than the individual 
specimen before them. 

This is also the method followed with some modifica- 
tions by some skilled artists, especially the Japanese. 
A Japanese artist who wishes to draw a bird, for exam- 
ple, may spend many days in observing its form, attitude, 
and movements and selecting the appearance that to him 
is most satisfactory. Then, without any model before him, 
he draws the picture with rapid, sure strokes. This method 
of drawing results in free, graceful lines, unified and har- 
monized, while the drawings from a model, though more 
exact, are likely to be stiff and less artistic as a whole. 

In teaching children to draw it is probably better from 
the first to encourage drawing from the images in mind. 

[178] 



IMAGINATION IN DRAWING AND CONSTRUCTING 

They do need, however, a good deal of practice in seeing 
essential details as well as general appearance. This may 
be accomplished by having them observe one or more 
features of an object until these are clearly imaged and 
then having them draw those features before they again 
look at the object. The number of things to be observed 
may be gradually increased until objects that are not too 
complex may be correctly drawn without reexamination. 

In the case of complex objects, especially landscapes, 
the constructive and creative imagination as well as the 
reproductive may be used. Whatever serves as a model 
is not copied in all its details, but parts of it are combined 
with images derived from other sources so as to make a 
more beautiful picture in which certain features of the 
scene or object are so prominent that an observer of the 
picture cannot fail to see them, although he might not 
have noticed them in the original. 

Constructing and imaging. In making boxes, portfolios, 
toys, tools, and machines the imagination usually plays an 
important part. It is not infrequently the case that per- 
sons who are very deficient in understanding and express- 
ing ideas by means of words are unusually skillful not 
only in their movements but in understanding and plan- 
ning constructions of various kinds. In some instances, 
at least, this is due to a considerable extent to the fact 
that they have a strong tendency to think not in words 
but in images, especially those involving space relations. 

Some individuals of this type are able to hold an image 
of an object in mind and see it from any angle that they 
choose and note just how each part is related to every 
other part. They can mentally select and arrange the 
materials for a box, a bird house, a trap, a dress, or a hat, 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

and the parts will fit just as they had anticipated. Other 
persons gain a general idea from the drawing or descrip- 
tion or from their own planning of how the objects will 
appear, but the image is so lacking in detail that when 
they attempt to put the parts together they do not get 
the results they had anticipated. It is of great advantage 
to be able to form clear and detailed images of what is 
to be constructed, although that power is not absolutely 
necessary to success. If the general image of the object 
to be made is supplemented by the memorizing of sym- 
bols describing the necessary details, the results may be 
even more accurate than when images are relied upon. 

Designing and inventing. Images are very convenient 
in designing and inventing, although they are not abso- 
lutely essential. Many persons do not attempt to image 
a whole design in detail, but mentally represent and exe- 
cute a part at a time, while holding in mind a general 
idea of the whole. In a large proportion of cases not 
even this much imaging is attempted, but trial arrange- 
ments of real objects or lines are used instead of the cor- 
responding mental representation. Those arrangements 
which seem to harmonize best with the general image of 
what is to be made are then chosen, and the design or 
the mechanism is worked out far enough to show how 
it is going to look or whether it will be successful. Many 
trial constructions may be made before the design is 
completed or the mechanism finished. 

Very few people are able to image a whole new crea- 
tion in detail before they construct any part of it. Instead, 
they image to some extent, then construct enough to see 
what the results are going to be, then image variations 
or additions. 

[iSo] 



IMAGINATION IN DRAWING AND CONSTRUCTING 

Artistic designing requires much the same kind of 
imagination as invention, except that ideals of the beauti- 
ful play a larger part in designing, while a knowledge of 
the nature of the materials to be employed and of the 
forces involved is absolutely essential in inventing. In 
both cases one must have had previous experience, giving 
a knowledge of the use of materials and of plans that 
may be followed ; and then there must be an ideal to be 
realized or an end to be gained which directs the specific 
arrangement of materials so that the new combination 
will be beautiful or useful. 

The successful designer or inventor must not follow 
familiar methods too closely, but, on the other hand, if he 
varies too much from all accepted models there are many 
chances to one that he will produce the bizarre rather than 
the beautiful or the useful. 

Originality in designing is fostered by a limited amount 
of exact copying from good models of various kinds and 
by a good deal of practice in using the elements of such 
designs modified and combined in a variety of ways for 
different purposes, artistic and useful. 

EXERCISES 

1. Have several children or older persons study some unfamiliar 
figure before them in any way that they choose for two minutes 
without drawing it. At the end of that time ask them to draw it 
from memory. Observe and inquire as to the methods used by dif- 
ferent individuals and their success. A week later ask them again to 
draw the figure from memory and to tell whether they remembered 
chiefly by an image of the figure or by words and associations. 

2. Discuss the comparative advantage of teaching pupils to draw 
from a model and from memory. When and to what extent should 
each method be used ? 

[•81] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

3. The ability to image constructively and in detail may be tested 
by asking pupils to figure out how much material will be needed to 
construct a paper or a wooden box of a certain size or to describe 
the design that will result from certain cuts in a folded paper. 

4. Get reports from various persons as to how far they are able 
to plan constructions in the absence of the materials to be used ; or 
ask several persons to plan a rug border, using rectangles of two 
sizes and two colors without the rectangles or anything to represent 
them. Then let them try it using written words, then drawings, then 
the rectangles themselves. Note the rapidity and success attending 
each method. 



[ 182 



CHAPTER XVIII 

IMAGINATION IN ARITHMETIC 

From concrete things to symbols. The child's early- 
ideas of number are based on perceptions and images of 
objects. More or less of similar things may mean to the 
child merely greater or less space covered by those things. 
In the case of objects which are not exactly alike, the 
child has an image of how each one looks and thus knows 
whether all are present. When he is first being taught 
to count objects, he is often inclined to regard the num- 
ber names as the specific names of the objects. For 
example, if the fingers are counted beginning with the 
little finger, the child may be inclined to insist that the 
little finger shall always be called one. 

After numbers have been used a great deal in indicat- 
ing the size of groups of objects, the child begins to think 
of groups of different sizes, not wholly by means of images 
of the objects but by means of the number symbol indi- 
cating the size of the group. When he first notes the 
result of combining groups or taking objects away from 
groups (for instance, putting two and one together or tak- 
ing one away from three), he is likely to image the objects 
and the change produced by adding to or taking away 
from the group. In counting a series of sounds there is 
more or less imaging of the sounds, and in such counting, 
as in counting visual objects, sensations and images of 
movement play a large part. The child points to each 
object when counting a visible group, and the result will 

[183] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

be correct only when the pointing and the utterance of 
the number symbol correspond with each other and with 
the movements of the eyes as he fixates one object after 
another. 

The number symbols which the child uses and images 
before going to school are auditory in character, and all 
of his number thinking which is not in the form of con- 
crete images involves auditory motor images of number 
symbols. Two and one bring to his mind the image of 
three as heard or spoken, because that has so often fol- 
lowed the others. Before going to school the number 
thinking of many children is largely in terms of auditory 
motor images, and they are able to compute to some 
extent with abstract numbers. 

From auditory to visual images. Formerly all the 
child's number training for several years of schooling was 
carried on in auditory symbols, and only after becoming 
familiar with a great many number combinations and all 
the common operations of arithmetic, and having had con- 
siderable practice in solving mentally problems involving 
small numbers, was he expected to begin using visual 
symbols. Then he worked problems similar to those he 
had previously solved, except that the numbers were 
larger and could more easily be handled by means of the 
slightly differing processes of written arithmetic. 

In modern schools written symbols are used almost as 
soon as the child begins work in number. This makes 
it necessary that he shall learn the visual mathematical 
language at the same time that he is learning number 
combinations and the processes by which calculations are 
made. The process of learning the visual language of 
arithmetic and that of learning the number facts and 

[i8 4 ] 



IMAGINATION IN ARITHMETIC 

mathematical relations are often confused not only in the 
child's mind but also in that of his teacher. The child 
may know the facts and how to calculate the results, but 
not be able to indicate the process accurately in visual 
symbols. The teacher, in attempting to help the child, 
frequently fails to realize where the difficulty lies and adds 
to his perplexity by trying to explain to him what he 
already knows, in just those terms which are the source 
of his difficulty. 

Recently the methods used in primary number work 
have changed, so that to a great extent the child learns 
the visual symbols of arithmetic from association with 
concrete objects rather than by a direct translation from 
auditory to visual symbols. Two groups of objects are 
added to make a larger group, then the symbols 2 + 2 = 4 
are written as the arithmetical way of indicating what has 
been done. Such learning of the visual language of arith- 
metic from direct experience with concrete objects gives 
a much more complete knowledge of the significance of 
the visual symbols. The child may at any time substitute 
for the symbols an image of the objects and of what was 
done with them. 

Because of this the situation is now much better than 
it was when written work was first introduced into the 
primary grades, but there is still some ground for ques- 
tioning whether the child's mathematical thinking would 
not be clearer if it were carried on by means of the famil- 
iar auditory motor symbols until he becomes acquainted 
with all the fundamental facts and processes, before be- 
ginning to use the visual language of arithmetic and the 
written methods of calculating, which are of advantage 
only in dealing with large numbers. 

[•85] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

However this may be, inquiry reveals the fact that a 
large proportion of those who have gone through the 
grades make much use of visual symbols of numbers and 
operations. If asked to perform an operation such as 
" fifteen times twenty," nearly all will image the numbers 
with the line drawn beneath and the results written below. 
So fixed are these number forms that children often think 
it would be impossible to perform the operation of sub- 
traction with the smaller number at the top, or the opera- 
tion of division with the position of the divisor and the 
quotient interchanged. Some go farther than this and 
visually image all numbers as arranged in a certain way, 
such as in a line running up or down or sideways and 
changing its direction at tens or hundreds, or they may 
be arranged in circles or in very complex forms. With 
some persons such number forms seem to be helpful in 
making combinations, while with others they are of no use. 

The tendency to carry on mathematical calculations in 
terms of symbols often becomes so strong that the pupil 
does not image the concrete even in situations when it is 
really necessary to correct thinking. Children who have 
been adding numbers, when asked, " What are three apples 
and four oranges ? " are likely to say " Seven," without 
thinking of the concrete reality but only of the symbol 
relations. The practice of giving many concrete problems 
to be solved rapidly naturally increases rather than de- 
creases this tendency. The child who stops to image the 
objects in their proper relation will be the last one to get 
the answer, while the one who does no imaging, but thinks 
only of the symbol relations suggested by the words, will 
be the first. A slight change in the order of the words 
in stating a problem will often lead rapid workers to 

[186] 



IMAGINATION IN ARITHMETIC 

perform the wrong operation. Sometimes it is difficult for 
children to image the concrete situation and correct the 
error into which they had been led by thinking in sym- 
bols only. To avoid this difficulty it is well to encourage 
deliberate and accurate work when concrete problems are 
given, leaving the rapid calculation for drill exercises with 
abstract numbers. 

Measurement and imaging. Problems involving meas- 
urement are also a good corrective for the tendency to the 
exclusive use of symbols in mathematical calculations. 
When measurements were introduced late in the course, 
as was formerly the case, children nearly always had a 
great deal of difficulty because they had learned to think 
in symbols only, whereas correct thinking in mensuration 
is possible only when the concrete facts are considered. 

At the present time a large proportion of high-school 
graduates, when asked to tell how much lumber will be 
required to make a box four feet square, will begin to 
calculate with symbols, without imaging the concrete prob- 
lem or asking whether the measurement given is outside 
or inside measurement, and without inquiring the thick- 
ness of the lumber. Even if they are told in the problem 
that the measurement is for the outside dimensions and 
that the lumber is two inches thick, many of them will 
not allow for that thickness in computing the length of 
boards required, according to the kind of joint that is to be 
made. For similar reasons many of them will fail in com- 
puting how many feet of picture molding will be required 
to frame a picture on a mat that is twelve by eighteen 
inches. They will perhaps not even realize at first that 
it is necessary to know the width of the molding in order 
to solve the problem. It is true that they may be taught 

[187] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

a formula such as, " The number of inches of molding 
required will be equal to the perimeter of the mat plus 
eight times the width of the molding," and in accordance 
with this formula may work problems involved in picture- 
framing, but this will not help them in solving other 
problems of mensuration. 

If, however, in the study of mensuration they have 
first solved the problem by manipulating objects, then by 
imaging how the objects will be related to each other, 
and finally have used a derived formula which will apply 
to all such cases, they are likely to retain the ability to 
use images whenever necessary. Hence, when a new 
problem in mensuration is given for which they have no 
formula, they will at once begin to image the concrete 
situation or to represent it by objects or lines, and then 
will work the problem correctly and perhaps be able to 
derive a formula by which all such problems may be 
quickly solved. For the above reasons it is of advantage 
to have problems of mensuration early introduced into the 
course as a natural corrective to the tendency to think 
more or less vaguely in terms of symbols only and to use 
formulas without retaining the ability to represent con- 
cretely the situation and processes which they indicate. 

It is probably because of the fact that so much of the 
practice work in arithmetic is concerned with the manipu- 
lation of symbols according to rule that children in schools 
where a large amount of time is devoted to arithmetic do 
no better than those who spend a much shorter time upon 
that subject. This may also be the reason why some 
graduates of the schools can do nothing without pencil 
and paper and even with them may be unable to solve 
little practical problems of a type new to them, which 

[188] 



IMAGINATION IN ARITHMETIC 

may be readily solved mentally by persons who have 
had a small amount of schooling. 

Computing and imaging. Before the child knows the 
exact significance of numbers he usually learns something 
of their relative meaning. He knows that twenty is a great 
deal more than three, and a hundred is more than twenty, 
while a thousand or a million mean a very great many. The 
person who has had little or no mathematical training con- 
tinues to estimate rather than to calculate, and he may form 
a fairly correct judgment as to what the right answer to a 
problem must be, although he cannot figure it accurately. 

The child trained in school arithmetic often loses en- 
tirely this ability to judge approximately what the answer 
should be. His mind is occupied with the details of cal- 
culation in accordance with rules that he has previously 
followed, and he fails to image the concrete situation and 
cannot tell, if he has made a mistake, whether his error 
is small or large. In trying to make the child an exact 
calculator he is frequently rendered unable to use his 
practical judgment, because he images only symbols and 
processes instead of concrete facts. The remedy for this 
is to treat arithmetic in the grades not as an exact science 
but as a practical art. 

Imagination and problem-solving. One reason why 
the teaching of arithmetic has been so unsatisfactory to 
men engaged in practical affairs is that children have had 
so much drill work and have had so many problems whose 
conditions they did not and could not image that they 
follow rules blindly and do not know how to apply their 
knowledge to new things. A large proportion of the 
problems in the arithmetic are concerned with transac- 
tions with which the child has had little or no experience. 

[189] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

A complete change in arithmetical work is sometimes 
produced by observing or taking part in laying a carpet, 
making a box, constructing a sidewalk, or by dramatic 
representations of business transactions. 

A feeble-minded boy, who could not tell what three and 
four were, could answer correctly the question, " If you 
were to haul four loads of coal to-day and three to-morrow, 
how many would that be ? " for he was used to hauling 
coaL In a similar way a normal child who has been sell- 
ing groceries, in reality or in imagination, may work prob- 
lems involving such things when he would fail on those 
concerned with the sale of cordwood, bricks, or bonds. 
The ability to image the objects with which the problems 
are concerned, and their relations in the transaction, not 
only enables the child to use his common sense in judging 
the correctness of his answer but it enables him to see 
more clearly what rules will apply to the conditions of 
the problem. 

Some practice in formulating problems is also needed. 
Children who have successfully used a cooking recipe 
may fail in reckoning the cost, because, for example, they 
do not reduce cups to pounds before multiplying by the 
price. The practical results of arithmetic would be much 
improved if clearer images of things and operations were 
formed before rules or formulas were used. 



EXERCISES 

1. Report observations of children's early experiences in counting 
and computing. 

2. The important part played by familiar symbols in arithmetical 
processes is shown by giving values to letters, such as a = i, b — 2, 

[I 9 0] 



IMAGINATION IN ARITHMETIC 

c — 3, etc., and then, using letters as digits, working arithmetically 
the following : c, b, d, e, 
/_? 

3. How many inch cubes will be required to make a row around 
the inside of a box that is eight by ten inches, inside measurement ? 
How many two-inch cubes? What is the difference between the cost 
of six dozen pencils at thirty cents a dozen and a half-dozen pencils 
at the same price ? 

4. Show why the old custom of having a great deal of mental 
arithmetic in the grades was or was not a good plan. This is of course 
the same as discussing the advisability of keeping the language of 
arithmetic auditory rather than visual, although concrete imaging and 
judging of amounts is also usually more prominent in mental than in 
written arithmetic. 



[191] 



CHAPTER XIX 

GEOGRAPHY AND THE IMAGINATION 

Geography as a stimulus to the imagination. When 
well taught, geography gives a better knowledge of one's 
own environment and stimulates the mind to picture the 
broader world as it really is. In no subject is the imagina- 
tion more necessary and useful. Concerned as it is with 
the earth as the home of man, geography furnishes a 
natural and varied stimulus to the imagination, whether 
one is interested in nature or in human beings. It con- 
tinually presents to the mind natural features, plants, ani- 
mals, and people different from those with which one is 
familiar. The student must use images of things known, 
but must greatly modify them in constructing what is 
described. These constructive imaginings, which may be 
entirely in accordance with fact, furnish rich material from 
which the creative imagination may evolve a realm of 
fancy, wherein one travels far and sees much that is strange 
and beautiful. 

Geographical language. Real objects, pictures, and 
word descriptions are extensively used in the study of 
geography as stimuli for the imagination, but the typical 
geographical language is diagrammatic and is most used 
in the form of maps. Various conventional symbols repre- 
sent different forms of land and water, divisions between 
countries, cities, rivers, mountains, and the elevations of 
land, in their proper space relations to each other. A map, 

[192] 



GEOGRAPHY AND THE IMAGINATION 

to one who is able to read its language, tells more than 
could hundreds of pictures, many pages of description, or 
years of travel and observation. So serviceable are maps 
that it is not strange that they have been extensively used 
in teaching geography. 

The advantages, however, have been offset somewhat 
by the fact that so much time has been spent in getting 
a knowledge of the names and space relations of the sym- 
bols of the map that there is frequently little or no mental 
picturing of the objects represented by those symbols. 
Most people, when asked to tell what image first comes 
to the mind when the name of a river, lake, mountain, 
or city that they had never seen is mentioned, will say 
that it is the symbol represented on the map. So much is 
the mind occupied in geographical studies with memoriz- 
ing symbols and their relations that many pupils do not 
get even a sufficient knowledge of the language of geog- 
raphy to be able to read maps with any degree of readi- 
ness or accuracy. In other words, they cannot look at a 
map of a country which they have never seen and form 
a distinct mental picture of what they would see if they 
visited it. 

The method now rather extensively followed of study- 
ing the immediate surroundings and expressing the results 
of that study in the language of the map is helpful in 
enabling pupils to interpret map language. It is un- 
doubtedly true, however, that some pupils who begin 
geography in this way later deal with map symbols so 
much and with so little thought of what they represent 
that they lose whatever power they had acquired in thai: 
line and are unable to image quickly and accurately what 
the map describes. To avoid this, emphasis should be 

[193] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

placed upon gaining a knowledge of the real thing as 
well as of the symbols. Extensive reading of travels in 
other lands and the writing of imaginary journals are 
helpful in making geography real and interesting and the 
language of maps intelligible. 

Constructive imagination and geography. In no sub- 
ject is there more demand for the use of the constructive 
imagination than in geography, and in no subject is its 
quick and accurate working so helpful. Various tests of 
school children, however, indicate that in a large propor- 
tion of cases the mental constructions are indefinite and 
inaccurate, although many of them have considerable vivid- 
ness. High-school graduates were asked, "How long will 
it take to walk across a bridge over the Mississippi River 
at St. Louis ? " Answers ranged all the way from five 
minutes up to three weeks. Answers as to how long it 
would take to float down the river from St. Paul to 
St. Louis or to climb Pikes Peak were almost equally varied. 

Rather extensive questions indicate that the figures used 
in geography have for most people very little significance, 
and if they attempt to image what the figures mean, the 
results are very inaccurate. Many of them are not even 
able to compare with approximate correctness the heights 
and distances of objects in their own neighborhood, nor 
unless they have been told can they give anything like 
an accurate estimate in common units of measure, such 
as feet, miles, and hours. They evidently need more prac- 
tice in comparing estimates of size and distance with 
measurements as well as more practice in accurately imag- 
ing what is described in figures or otherwise. 

Geographical imaging and reasoning. Much of what 
geography teaches may be imaged, and in many cases 

[ J 94] 



GEOGRAPHY AND THE IMAGINATION 

little besides vivid imaging is necessary in order to get 
some of the advantages which come from that study, 
especially in the way of accumulation of material with 
which imagination and thought may work. Such image 
material is helpful in reasoning, but many of the vivid 
images formed are of little use unless they are associated 
with knowledge of their meanings and relation. 

If vivid images are properly related with general truths, 
the mental constructions involved in reading a map and the 
creations of the imagination in representing a journey to an 
unvisited country will conform closely to reality. Icebergs 
will not be forming in torrid seas, palms growing in the 
frigid zone, rivers flowing across mountains, seas draining 
into lakes, or savages engaged in the arts of civilization. 

After a few fundamental truths of geography have been 
learned, details regarding various parts of the earth may 
be rapidly gained, because when a few facts are given 
others may be inferred, and it is not necessary to spend 
any time in memorizing them. The specific facts of 
geography are almost infinite in number, but if one has 
learned a few of them, has acquired the power to image 
vividly, and knows some general truths regarding the 
relations of things to each other, it is possible to gain in 
a comparatively short time all the geographical information 
one needs regarding any particular portion of the earth. 

EXERCISES 

1. The terms of geography according to which north is toward 
the top of the map, south toward the bottom, east to the right, and 
west to the left, are frequently not readily translated into reality, as 
will be shown by asking children and others to point in the actual 
direction of cities or islands with which they are familiar as repre- 
sented on the map. 

[•95] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

2. If asked to represent the St. Lawrence River as flowing down 
into the lakes, many will do so without questioning the truth of the 
representation. 

3. If you ask which of the Great Lakes has the highest elevation, 
an image of the map representation of them will be found helpful, 
but the general truth as to the flow of water must be used in reason- 
ing rather than the idea that " down " on the map means lower in 
elevation. 

4. If possible, try this experiment in two seventh-grade or eighth- 
grade classes. Have one class study a new country and then write 
an account of an imaginary trip through it ; let the other begin with 
the purpose of writing such an account and seek for themselves the 
necessary facts. Discuss the extent of the knowledge gained by the 
two methods in the same length of time and also the training in 
habits of study that is given by each method. 

5. Discuss the comparative value of storing in memory geographi- 
cal facts and of learning where to acquire quickly any that may be 
needed. 



['96] 



CHAPTER XX 

IMAGINATION IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE 

Enlargement of the social environment through imag- 
ination. Both history and literature are chiefly concerned 
with people and with what they have done. Through his- 
tory and literature one becomes acquainted with a great 
variety of individuals and is made familiar with unusual 
and striking events. The characters differ somewhat from 
personal acquaintances and from those learned of in geog- 
raphy. History for the most part presents to us unusual 
people performing unusual acts ; literature introduces the 
most interesting persons in the most interesting situations 
of life ; while geography deals with ordinary individuals 
engaged in their everyday occupations, but who are inter- 
esting to us because they differ so much from the people 
that we know. The value of both history and literature 
depends to a considerable extent upon the imagination. 
If the persons and events described are pictured so vividly 
that they occupy as prominent a place in our thoughts as 
memories of persons we have seen and events we have 
observed, then history and literature have done for us in 
part what a longer life and a wider social experience would 
do. We meet in history and literature people who are 
worth while. We enter into the greatest and the most 
interesting experiences of their lives, but in all we find 
the same fundamental characteristics of human beings 
the world over. 

[197] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

Historical and literary ideals. The importance of the 
enlarged social environment gained through history and 
literature is clearly indicated by various studies. People 
who are known only in imagination often come to play 
a larger part in our mental lives than real people. This 
is shown to some extent in the dramatic plays of children, 
in which characters from history and literature rather than 
real persons are represented. It is shown still more strik- 
ingly in various studies that have been made of children's 
ideals. When children are asked whom they wish to be 
like, a great majority of all but the younger ones mention 
characters from history and literature rather than from 
among their personal acquaintances. Historical and liter- 
ary characters are especially suited for serving as ideals 
because only their most striking and interesting charac- 
teristics are shown in outline, and details may be filled in 
to harmonize with them, while characters in real life are 
at times commonplace or unattractive. Personal acquaint- 
ances observed in various aspects cannot stimulate the 
imagination as do the men and women of history or 
literature, of whom we know only a few striking facts. 

Dramatics in history and literature. The child's natural 
method of becoming acquainted with people is to do as 
they do and find out how it feels to perform such actions. 
He also lives over again events which he has observed 
through dramatic representations of them. Words, pic- 
tures, and diagrams all have their place as stimuli to the 
imagination in studying history and literature, but they 
are not nearly so effective as dramatic action, especially 
when the pupil takes part in the drama which he has him- 
self planned in part in accordance with his interpretation 
of events and characters. These dramatic representations 

[i 9 8] 



IMAGINATION IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE 

may be very simple and sketchy for younger pupils, 
and more elaborate, accurate, and consistent in detail for 
older ones. 

Dramatics as an aid in studying history and literature 
may be used not only in the more usual forms of costum- 
ing and " acting of plays " but also by assuming the mental 
characteristics of great men and performing similar deeds. 
Probably no high-school pupils ever obtained a more com- 
plete knowledge of men and events of the early days of 
our national history than did a class which organized as 
the First National Congress. Each pupil assumed the 
character of some prominent statesman, introducing bills 
and making arguments as his original had done. Such 
dramatic representation stimulates the imagination but at 
the same time brings it under the rigid control of facts 
and probabilities. 

Imitation may greatly help in literary expression of 
imaginative activity. Pupils may be asked after reading 
^Esop's Fables to write similar ones showing that " Haste 
makes waste," or that " Pride goeth before a fall," etc. 
Again, pupils who have read R. H. Davis's "Van Bibber 
Stories," Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside Inn," or 
other distinctive types of literature, may write stories simi- 
lar in style but varying in content. 

Not only may prose be imitated but also poetry. Songs 
also may be written and the music for them composed, 
or stories may be illustrated by drawings. Such construc- 
tive and creative work is often done exceedingly well by 
pupils who have previously shown little interest in litera- 
ture. After successful effort of his own a child or youth 
is nearly always more appreciative of what others have 
done. 

[*99] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

Illustrating and writing as a stimulus to the imagina- 
tion. Another method of stimulating the imagination to 
effective work in studying history and literature is to have 
pupils illustrate by drawings the descriptions which they 
have read or to have them write accounts of events, per- 
sons, or organizations with which they are familiar. They 
will thus get some practice in selecting historical and 
literary material and in finding words which will properly 
express the desired thought. This will greatly add to 
their appreciation of what they read and stimulate them to 
exercise their imagination in reading between the lines. 
It is frequently of advantage for pupils to attempt to de- 
scribe familiar incidents in imitation of model descriptions 
of other events from history or literature. It is sometimes 
well to have the same event described from a historical 
and then from a literary standpoint ; the purpose in the 
one case being to select important facts and state them 
accurately, and in the other to select interesting charac- 
ters and happenings and present them in a vivid and 
entertaining way by adding appropriate details. 

Literary expression a?id imagination. Literature, 
especially poetry, abounds in figures of speech which are 
always stimulating to the imagination and suited to the 
production of vivid images and appropriate feeling. In 
general, these figures of speech suggest similarities or 
analogies connecting various objects not ordinarily asso- 
ciated, or they are animistic, intimating that things have 
human qualities. In good literature such figurative lan- 
guage stimulates the mind to form artistic or humorous 
pictures. The significance of such expressions may be 
greatly increased by asking pupils to invent others in 
connection with common objects and incidents. Surprising 

[ 200] 



IMAGINATION IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE 

ability may be shown and developed in this way even in 
small pupils. Such questions as the following are quite sure 
to stimulate the imagination and will frequently call forth 
artistic literary expressions. " If a violet became a little 
girl, what sort of girl would she be ? " " If a rabbit became 
a little boy, what sort of boy would he be ? " 

In the case of older pupils such questions as the follow- 
ing may be used : " What is happiness like ? " " What is 
sorrow like ? " "To what may youth be compared, or age ? " 
" To what may life be compared ? " " How would you per- 
sonify industry or ingenuity ? " In giving such questions 
it may be well to present several model comparisons to 
start the children to thinking, but the giving of answers 
which vary from the model should be encouraged. 

A primary teacher, seeking to arouse the imagination 
and call forth poetic and pleasing expressions, asked her 
primary children to tell what certain phrases made them 
see or think. Some of the best answers follow. "Down 
from the clouds : Once I saw, after a rain, when I looked 
out of a window, little paths of light coming down from 
the clouds." " Softest light : One night there was a ring 
around the moon, and it looked like a soft light." "Stars: 
Friday night the sky was full of stars ; they looked like 
dots of gold sprinkled over the sky." " Gleamed red with 
firelight through the leaves: These words make me think 
of last fall in a neighbor's yard, when the maple leaves 
were turning yellow and the veins of the leaves looked 
like bars of gold." "A pleasa?it day: A pleasant day is 
like a little girl with a pleasant face." 

In response to the question, " If a lily became a person, 
what sort of person would it be ? " one answer was, "A 
baby is like a lily because it is pure and white and good." 

[201] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

To a similar question regarding a mouse the following 
answer was given: "A person like a mouse would be a 
little boy who was very still. He would steal things to 
eat and would not be easy to catch." 

The following are some of the answers given by normal 
students to similar questions : 

I should imagine that if a mouse became a man he would be 
a short, small, sleek-looking man with black hair combed back 
smoothly and carefully, a black moustache, and glasses. I think 
he would wear a black suit and perhaps carry a cane. I think 
he would be somewhat dudish in appearance and would be 
quiet and sly in his actions. 

I should imagine a violet, if changed to a person, would be a 
sweet-faced young lady with dreamy blue eyes and light hair. 
She would dress in some soft white material and perhaps wear 
a bunch of violets at her belt. I think she would have a 
beautiful disposition. 

If a mouse became a person he would be a short fat person 
with a very full neck, wearing a high collar. He would carry his 
chin high in the air. A pair of glasses would be placed on his 
nose. He would be dressed in a black dress-suit coat and striped 
pants, carrying a cane. His ankles would be rather small and 
his feet large, with patent-leather shoes. 

If a violet became a person it would be a little girl with a 
beautiful face and lovely hair. Her dress would be white with 
scalloped flounces trimmed with green. 

In imagining how a mouse would look if he were a person, 
I think he would be a very neat, sleek-looking man, and bright. 
His eyes would be a very dark brown, his teeth pearly white 
and sharp. His hair would be combed very neatly, never a hair 
out of place, his clothes of the neatest cut in gray. 

As for a violet's being a person, I think she would make a very 
quiet, modest, shy young lady with a very neat and trim blue dress. 

[ 202 ] 



IMAGINATION IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE 

EXERCISES 

1. Which is more important, that a child should learn many facts 
and dates in history or that he should form many vivid images of 
persons and events ? Why ? 

2. To what extent were your ideals in youth derived from persons 
of whom you read and to what extent from personal acquaintances ? 
Do bad characters ever have any influence upon the formation of 
good ideals ? Illustrate. 

3. What is the comparative value to children and young people 
of being carefully trained in presenting historical events dramatically 
and of presenting crudely, according to their own ideas, many 
incidents ? 

4. Try some experiments in having pupils write imitations of 
literary selections and report the results. 

5. Try also the experiment of having various things personified 
or special phrases made concrete. 



[203] 



CHAPTER XXI 

IMAGINATION IN NATURE STUDY AND SCIENCE 

Imagination and observation. Teachers of small chil- 
dren, who have encouraged nature study, especially the 
study of birds, have been impressed with the fact that 
many children possess better powers of imagination than 
of observation. Better, as used here, should be under- 
stood to mean "freer" rather than "more accurate." It is 
frequently much easier for a child to imagine birds than it 
is to find them, and to guess how they look than to observe 
accurately when there is little time or an obstructed view. 
Each child is anxious to report as many facts as any 
of the other children, and if the facts reported excite 
wonder and admiration, his imagination is stimulated to 
supply others equally wonderful. 

Leaves, flowers, and insects, which can be examined 
at leisure and of which samples can be brought to verify 
the reports of what has been seen, may be observed with 
considerable accuracy, after a little training, by even small 
children. Good pictures of birds may be a great help in 
promoting accurate observation. When certain birds are 
reported as having been seen and are described as they 
are represented in books, the genuineness of the observa- 
tion may be determined by questioning the child as to 
where the bird was seen and what it was doing. A cor- 
rect image of how the bird looks is an aid in discovering 
and seeing the characteristics of that bird, but, on the 
other hand, if careful observation and verification are not 

[204] 



IMAGINATION IN NATURE STUDY AND SCIENCE 

insisted upon, the child may wrongly identify birds as 
being of the species for which he is looking or of which 
he has recently learned. 

Artistic and poetic study. Objects of nature are some- 
times studied, not so much to gain accurate knowledge 
as to observe their beauty or their interesting peculiari- 
ties. In poetry and in other literature their appearance 
and movements are frequently compared to those of per- 
sons. Children are ready to appreciate such analogies and 
are easily led to take an animistic view of almost any- 
thing. Good literature concerned with objects of nature 
and its seasonal phenomena is abundant, and some of it 
is suitable to children and may help to make their study 
of nature much more interesting, without in any way inter- 
fering with its accuracy. If the facts observed and de- 
scribed are essentially correct, there is no harm in giving 
them interpretations more or less fanciful and poetic. 
Such interpretations should be treated in a light and play- 
ful way rather than in a serious and literal manner. They 
will not then come into serious conflict with practical and 
scientific ideas acquired later. 

Practical nature study. Many careful studies of the 
interests of children reveal the fact that children are usu- 
ally interested primarily in what things can do or what 
may be done with them. This truth is now being recog- 
nized in nature study, and children are encouraged to find 
out whether the plants and animals they have opportunity 
to observe are useful or harmful. They make a thorough 
study of plants of useful kinds in order that they may 
properly care for them. They learn of the usefulness or 
harmfulness of animals and insects, not simply to them- 
selves but to the community. They readily appreciate the 

[205] 



IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 

injuries that may be caused by some of the beautiful in- 
sects and the good done by the homely toad, and that birds 
and other creatures may be useful as well as beautiful. 

It is often more difficult to harmonize the sentiments 
arising from animistic views of nature, especially of ani- 
mals, with the practical need demanding their destruction. 
The truth that death is not necessarily painful is of con- 
siderable assistance in explaining what may or may not be 
done to living things. 

Scientific nature study. The kinds of nature study 
already described, if properly carried on, do not neces- 
sarily interfere with scientific nature study but may be a 
good preparation for it by filling the child's mind with 
images which, when they are associated with the appro- 
priate general truths, will enable him to classify, observe, 
and interpret his observations. Indeed, the earlier study 
of nature may really be, to a considerable extent, scien- 
tific. When a child is interested he can learn scientific 
names and the correct terms to be applied to various 
phenomena as readily as he can the fanciful and babyish 
expressions sometimes used. In learning such terms and 
acquiring a correct idea of their significance he should 
not be given long descriptions or elaborate definitions, but 
the terms should be closely associated with the things 
which he is observing in such a way that he will perceive 
something of their significance. With further observation 
and use of the terms he will gain a more complete idea 
of their meaning, and later, if it is thought desirable, 
exact definitions may be formulated. 

In turning to the more scientific study of nature it is 
not necessary to abandon the practical. The laws of phys- 
ics and chemistry may be studied in connection with 

[206] 



IMAGINATION IN NATURE STUDY AND SCIENCE 

practical affairs, such as the heating and ventilating of 
houses and the cooking and preserving of foods. Such 
training enables one to image many concrete situations 
in which these laws are manifested and helps to make 
them clearer and more significant. Children should not 
be taught to image things merely as others have imaged 
them, but what others have done should be used in a play- 
ful and suggestive way to stimulate the child's own imag- 
ination. The important thing in nature study is that the 
child shall have much sensory experience of the objects 
and phenomena of nature. The classification of these 
may come later in the study of science. 

EXERCISES 

1. Report instances in which the observations of school children 
have been colored by the imagination and discuss how they may be 
led to observe more accurately. 

2. Try to draw from children their own animistic interpretations 
of nature and see if you cannot find some that are worthy of poets 
and ancient myth makers. 

3. Children who have the experience of caring for plants and pets 
and of studying and making collections of objects of nature may have 
their imagination stirred by attempts to compute the injury done by 
one fly or the good done by one bird, as well as by the expression of 
thoughts and sentiments about pets and flowers. 

4. Select a lesson as given in some nature-study book and criti- 
cize it from the point of view of its truth and its value as a stimulus 
or in directing the imagination. 



[207] 



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